My Attempt at Running a "Normal" Basic/Expert D&D Game...

So I volunteered to run 3 sessions for Red Box Vancouver this month, and as a change of pace from my regular DM style attempted to make a "normal" dungeon for the adventures.

First I whipped up some maps in my awesome graph paper Moleskine notebook during some lulls in a Mutant Future Game (during which Kronh the Slayer got to get down with a four-boobed mutant queen!), and roughly blocked out some areas with the awesome Tekumel underworld chart PDF (I've got to get my hands on a copy of the Pettigrew Selections ASAP!). Came up with a couple wacky things with the results, but they were well within the precedents of early TSR OD&D/AD&D output.

Next I worked on the monster lists for stocking the dungeon; somewhat unsurprisingly my attempts at normalcy went pretty much went out the window at this point and things took a pre-Wessex Rientsian turn... (I was planning on using the spiffy S&W Tome of Horrors Complete for this, but between the monsters I wanted to use and my preference for the Fiend Folio version of some monsters nope; maybe if they included Hoard Class and Morale Scores... ;) As an aside every post Fiend Folio version of the awesome Crabmen ignores two awesome things about the Fiend Folio version: A) They're nuts about silver & B) They carry off women.)

Regardless I soldiered on in my attempt to make a normal B/X D&D dungeon and stocked it using a combination of the B/X D&D dungeon stocking tables; the Appendices of the AD&D DMG; and the Awesome Tricks. Empty Rooms, & Basic Trap Design PDF by Courtney C. Campbell of the Hack & Slash blog. (I'm planning on giving the regions unexplored after tonight another go-over with the also-Awesome Old School Encounter Reference by Kellri; the Judges Guild Ready Refs' Sheets; and sundry dungeon tables by Zak S.)

I did the stocking in a two-hour period before rushing to meet the super-cool Red Box Vancouver crew at a far too crowded and loud coffee shop in a cool neighborhood (as opposed to the tumbleweed infested coffee shop we used to use...). Graham proceeded to generate a halfling hobbit with 18s in Dexterity and Constitution, and a Strength of 13-15(?) right in front of me and I swore that that sheet would end up on my DM Trophy Triumph Death Wall...

The session was pretty awesome; I failed in my quest to gut the Red Box Vancouver stable of badass PCs (for this week...) but I managed to:

A) Totally beat the living shit out of badass dwarf Gamgar with the first dungeon encounter, on the stairs leading down into the dungeon, with a very muppet-like, hunched and piteously whimpering, mother-freaking Stair Stalker! Which also totally freaked the fuck out of the players, who were also incensed and skeptical when they took the same monster's remains to a wizard to have it identified and were told that it was a monster called a Stair Stalker that rarely spontaneously generate on underworld staircases.

B) Kill one of the party's sociopathic thug retainers, Rhino Toronto of the Toronto brothers, between expeditions via random roll, when he cracked his head slipping in bloody cobblestones while bashing a farm boy's head into an alleyway curb.

C) Nailed Gamgar with a pit trap, and was a hair away from tossing him down another one a mere minute later before another player thought to check the floors.

D) Kill Merrigold Serpenthelm's two batshit-vicious rottweiler sized "war dog" pitbulls (that were always pissing everywhere and eating dungeon-dressing bones) via shambling "Blind Dead" ghouls that also spent several rounds attempting to lap up Columbo the double-18 stat hobbit's blood with their withered jerky tounges but were unable to claw through the paralyzed hobbit's plate mail. Fortunately the stupid blind dead all shambled through the magic circle hologram gate to Carcosa that the party was cowering behind.

E) Got Dino Toronto of the Toronto brothers cut in half by a dark Jedi's lighsaber when the party broke into Darth Vader's tomb.

F) Got the DM-infuriating statistically gifted hobbit Columbo's eye taken out by the same dark Jedi's lightsabre. It was awesome when Merrigold Serpenthelm tried to invisibly sneak up on the dark Jedi who was force choking a hobbit and knocking arrows out of the air, and of course the Sith dude just used the force to know where he was.

Other hijinks included:

- An inexplicably Italian accented cowardly hobbit, who had a key to the service entrance to an abandoned wizard's manor handed down to him by his great-great-great grandfather who was a cook for the aforementioned wizard.

- Dino Toronto being apprenticed to Merrigold Serpenthelm by an elderly half-deaf, senile, drunken guardsman in a powdered wig as court-appointed punishment for inflicting random ultraviolence upon farm boys instead of him being tortured by virtue of the party intervening and feeding booze and gold to the "judge".

- Merrigold being able to identify by smell a pool of dog urine in the dungeon by virtue of his batshit massive pit bulls pissing everywhere for the past week.

- The party looting Darth Vader's suit of plate mail from his sarcophagus.

- The party killing a four armed white ape and than finding magic hologram gates to Barsoon and Carcosa.

- Retainers consistantly cowering from monsters and danger.

I can't wait for next Wednesday's return to The Manor of Kalapron!

Ghorhats, Khirhine & Monoclopians

GHORHATS
# Encountered: 4-16 (20-200 in lair)
Armor Class: 7
Movement: 12"
Hit Dice: 2+1
Attacks: By weapon or bite/gore for 1-6
Special: Nil
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Neutral evil
Size: L (8')
A race of tall, gaunt humanoids with hairless, tough, rubbery green skin; long, wiry limbs; long, white curved tusks; pointed ears; two vertical slashes for nostrils; and large, round eyes with red irises. Ghorhats live for violence and battle, knowing no mercy or kindness. Their society is based upon bands lead by warchiefs, and all of their disputes are settled by violence. They often have settlements in remote ruins. Ghorhats prefer weapons that are slender and elongated, like their wielders, usually bearing long spears and hand-and-a-half swords, with a short sword or a hand axe serving the function of a knife. They greatly prize the projectile weapons of civilized men, as well as their luxury goods such as jewelry and rich fabrics, and often raid human settlements or caravans for such loot. Some legends claim that they are the degenerated and mutated descendants of on the civilizations of the Ancients.

KHIRHINE
# Encountered: 3-12
Armor Class: 5
Movement: 18"
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: By weapon plus two foreleg strikes for 1-6/1-6
Special: Nil
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Lawful evil
Size: L (8' tall)
The Khirhine superficially resemble the centaur of Earth's legends; they have a large, quadrepedal body with the upper portion of a humanoid where the head and neck would be; however, they have thick green-and-yellow reticulated scales; a long, broad tail; massive claw-like nails instead of hooves; and a horned, beaked head with a single, globular eyes of solid red coloration.The Khirhine are a cruel race and place much emphasis on their code of martial honor. They say that they are the descendants of star-travelers trapped upon Algol by misfortune in the distant past; the Khirhine greatly resent their present situation and take their frustration out on the inhabitants of this world. They often serve as mercenaries.


MONOCLOPIANS
# Encountered: 4-24
Armor Class: 8
Movement: 12"
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: By weapon or two claws for 1-3/1-3
Special: Nil
Intelligence: Low
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Size: M
A savage race of raiders and despoilers, Monoclopians are skinny, gangling beings with jaundice-yellow skins; long talon-like nails; pointed ears; and a single, large, human-like eye. Some have long, scraggly hair in nauseating ocher and brown hues growing from their lower legs and the sides and backs of their skulls. They inhabit the desolate wastes of Algol where they live a savage existence little removed from that of beasts. Monoclopians are reputed to harbour an unwholesome lust for Human women.

Monster - Khorhung (Four-Armed Giants)

KHORHUNG
# Encountered: 2-8 (6-36 in lair)
Armor Class: 5
Movement: 9"
Hit Dice: 4+4
Attacks: 1, 2 (at -4 'to hit') or 4 (at -8 'to hit') for 1-10 or by weapon with +2 on damage dice.
Special: immune to fear
Intelligence: Low
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L (8-9')
Hulking, muscular humanoids with leathery, thick, hairless ocher hide; four powerful three-fingered arms; flattened, oval ear-less heads; bulging, metallic, green compound eyes; pit-like nostrils; and a wide, lipless mouth full of dark indigo tusks. They  wear loinclouts and battle harnesses of scaled hide and carry several crude stone-headed axes and spears.
The Khorhung inhabit the wastes and deserts of Algol where they hunt massive beasts; wage war with other tribes of wasteland inhabitants; and occasionally raid the caravans and settlements of the soft, civilized men. They are a simple people that love fighting; physical exertion; and gorging on meat. Despite their proclivities for raiding, they will trade with outsiders on occasion, and especially prize quality battle axes and great swords, which they are capable of wielding with one hand.
Due to their four muscular arms Khorhung are capable of attack with two weapons in one round (with a -4 on all attack rolls) or four weapons (at -8 on all attack rolls); they are also capable of biting while disarmed or wrestling for 1-6 points of damage. Due to their great strength they inflict +2 on damage dice with weapons. Spears and thrown rocks are the only missile weapons that they commonly use.
Khorhung tribes will often have champions and chieftains with additional hit dice, up to a total of 8+8 for grizzled hero-warlords.

Sky Vessels of Planet Algol

I've known from the campaign's inception that Planet Algol has to incorporate flying vessels, from rocketships and flying saucers to dirigibles and sky-boats.

I'm really enthusiastic about the one-page Sailing the Skies of Mars rules by Sean Willis, as they are simple and utilize the familiar mechanics of Armor Class, Hit Points and so forth, although that naval combat rules from Expert Dungeons & Dragons are simple as well and have an illustrious pedigree.

Sailing the Skies of Mars divides skyships into 4 different categories, based on passenger capacity, from the 1-2 person fliers to 50 person galleons, from which armor class, movement rate and potential weaponry determined by size (hull class?). Elegant and simple, and an easy way to categorize that various concepts I have regarding Planet Algol sky vessels:

Ornithopter (1-2 person flier): A homage to Dune and Hawkmoon, they resemble insectile winged helicopters designed by a Martian Leonardo Da Vinci. There are one and two-seater varieties, and they have limited cargo capacity. The pulp adventurer biplane of Planet Algol.

Sky Chariot (4 person skiff): These generally resemble an Atlantean version of the Star Wars Landspeeder although bird sculpture and miniature flying saucer (with a bubble canopy) versions exist. Planet Algol's flying cars.

Skyship (10 person barge): Resembling a cross between a rocketship and a dirigible, with an open deck on the top, generally silvery, needle-nosed and bearing tail-fins. The yachts of Planet Algol's skies.

Contragravity Barge (50 person galleon): Encompassing vessels ranging from those similar to Jabba sail barge from Return of the Jedi to Stargate-esque flying pyramids (although I prefer ziggurats...).