u/SydLonreiro

Today, the mad mage Syd Lonreiro has finished the map of a level he has been working on for several weeks. However, there are still many rooms that do not yet have doors, or secret doors, to access them. It is a special level in the lineage of the most fun and coolest levels of Castle Greyhawk. After pulp science fiction, I wanted another “WTF” level, so I decided to create a level based on the collaborative mythology of the SCP universe.

As in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, there will be firearms, but not blasters, modern guns and explosives instead. The level is a containment site for SCP creatures; some of the most resilient ones are already locked in a small cluster of rooms in the northeast, west of the large dart-shaped hall in the far east.

There is also a large circular room that already serves as an administrative zone in the southwest, with empty offices and plenty of corpses, a surviving staff resistance, and it will likely be the main access point of the level.

I will fill it with SCPs that I will adapt to AD&D/OD&D; some of them may be killed using the means available in the level, mainly firearms. The level is dark and dangerous.

The 10-foot-wide tunnels are circular but have a straight grated floor running through them. The main corridors are hexagonal.

This level is, of course, a mapping and survival challenge for high-level players.

What a great mail day!

Today I received my second Monster Manual. I already had a POD copy from DTRPG, but I wanted an original to complete my collection. Not a pristine, like-new book that spent its entire existence sealed in a plastic jacket. I wanted a witness from the 1970s/1980s sitting in my room, accompanying me at my gaming table, and honestly, it’s just cooler around the table that way.

I found this one on eBay for a very low price. It’s one of the early printings, the third printing, I believe. It doesn’t have the yellow banner, and the title ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS appears in large red letters across the top of the cover. The binding is sewn, and there are red pages inside.

What makes it amazing is that the previous owner colored some of the monsters in it. Probably another teenager who got it back in the late 1970s, and who also started escaping into D&D to get away from all those alpha-male jocks monopolizing popularity in high school. Another guy like me.

The passing of the torch across generations is complete!

All the female monsters are colored in it. Those are the ones I also colored first in my POD. The previous owner and I probably have quite a few things in common.

Quick question for the narrative experts here. Caverns like the Caverns of Tsojcanth style or dungeon geomorphs are fairly easy to roughly describe and map for players, but how are these Grodogian-style caverns described and mapped by players?

I wrote a small idea and I think it might look something like this, but I feel it could be difficult to describe small natural alcoves and imperfections except in a very rough way. However, in a megadungeon this is actually crucial so that players can mentally reconstruct a three-dimensional space and map it on graph paper. This is a little piece of dialogue I quickly came up with, but it’s only the way I would do it, and it is probably too crude:

> After a 30-foot descent, the passage widens and you emerge into a vast natural cavern with irregular walls, eroded by water and covered in limestone formations. The ceiling fades into darkness about 25–30 feet above your heads. Stalactites hang like yellowed fangs. The ground is uneven, scattered with rocks and stagnant pools of water. You are approximately at the center-west of this large chamber. Dark openings lead off in several directions. To the northeast, a wide natural passage continues. To the southeast, a narrower corridor descends into darkness. To the southwest, a narrow, winding fissure slopes gently downward. To the west, the passage you came through leads back up toward the surface.

AD&D 1E Teen Tournament and Total Party Kill Today!

Today I ran an AD&D 1E tournament set in my Zonreiryd campaign for two friends from high school. We’re all teenagers, and I’m a 16-year-old DM, so the whole thing had this mix of chaos, hype, and tactical overthinking that honestly made it unforgettable.

The players each controlled a level 3 adventurer: a human fighter and a human magic-user. For the first time ever in one of my old-school RPG sessions, I used henchmen. There was a half-orc female warrior hired by the fighter, and a human thief hired by the magic-user. Both henchmen were level 1.

The adventure took place in what was originally supposed to be my own version of level 3 of Castle Greyhawk. I copied the northwest section from my map and invented the rest myself. Later, I decided to transform the whole thing into a prison controlled by a garrison of fierce Amazons, a faction already deeply established in my Zonreiryd campaign, which is inspired both by Greek mythology and the comics of William Moulton Marston.

The tournament was basically tactical infiltration mixed with Metal Gear Solid vibes.

I clearly briefed the players beforehand. Their characters had to advance slowly, sector by sector, securing areas and avoiding deadly fights whenever possible. They knew that if the Amazons discovered one of their sisters had been murdered, the prison would go on full alert and every trap in the dungeon could be activated.

Their mission was to rescue adventurers and soldiers captured by the Amazons. Once the tournament’s time limit expired, some prisoners would be executed while others would be transferred to Themyscira. If the group failed, just like in the classic G1 module, the adventurers themselves would be dragged to the execution block and beheaded.

I skipped the travel session because I didn’t want to waste time on hexcrawling. So I simply described the group traveling with four mules, setting up camp, and spotting towers emerging from a mountain valley. Near an old oak tree, they discovered an entrance dug directly into the earth, with stairs descending into cool air carrying the smell of burnt wood.

I absolutely terrified my players with the oppressive atmosphere of the prison entrance facing south.

The group descended into darkness, and Gabin, the player controlling the magic-user, immediately started mapping the dungeon on a sheet of graph paper I had prepared for him. Since we’re French, I used the metric system along with cardinal directions to describe the dungeon. Honestly, cardinal directions help players map way better.

I already knew where every planned encounter and patrol route was located. I designed the dungeon like a tactical battlefield the Amazons could exploit to their advantage.

The group entered a large chamber with exits to the west, east, and north. Each exit was blocked by a portcullis controlled by a lever. They spotted two attractive Amazon guards around twenty years old watching over two murder holes. One brunette was asleep on a stool with her head resting on her exhausted blonde companion, who was barely staying awake and never noticed the party hidden in the darkness.

The thief henchman ambushed the tired Amazon from behind with a garrote. The sleeping Amazons were restrained, gagged with scarves, and searched while the party looted the room. They recovered two daggers, found a wooden chest containing a waterskin full of water, and another dagger.

The east lever was pulled, the gate rose, and the group continued deeper into the labyrinth while mapping, searching for traps, and looking for secret doors.

After navigating a looping section and a diagonal southeastern passage, they got lucky on their secret door checks and discovered a hidden airlock-like area between two secret doors. Then they encountered a wounded Amazon carrying a water jar over her head. She had an injured leg. The group ambushed her too. Once unconscious, she was restrained and gagged. They found a dagger and a key on her.

Later, the party listened at a door and heard an Amazon alone inside playing dice. The fighter, who spoke the Amazon language, had a hilarious idea.

The conversation went like this:

“Hey, it’s me!”

“Who is it? Thalestria or Voryka?”

“It’s Voryka!”

“Come in, old sister, everybody’s looking for you tonight.”

“I can’t open the door.”

“What? Did you lose your key? Fine, I’m opening.”

What the players didn’t know was that the Amazon inside was actually a sergeant guarding the prison key room.

The moment she opened the door, the group jumped her in melee combat. The magic-user used a special item I invented: sleep darts. Targets had to make a save vs death or instantly fall asleep for 1d6 turns.

The sergeant failed and collapsed unconscious.

The players tied her up and decided to interrogate her later. The half-orc warrior stayed behind to guard her while the rest of the group rested. According to AD&D 1E rules, they basically needed downtime after every fight anyway.

We took a break.

When the players came back, I announced:

“The sergeant is gone. Your entire party is tied up. The door is locked from the outside.”

You should’ve seen their faces.

Everyone burst out laughing while also getting genuinely mad at me at the same time. It was amazing.

Eventually the group escaped and absolutely roasted the half-orc henchwoman for failing guard duty.

Later they entered a huge fully lit recreation hall that I mapped for them directly because of its size. Six Amazons occupied the room: three sleeping, one exercising, and two eating.

The sleeping Amazons were murdered in their beds and their bodies hidden inside the mattresses. The beds were searched for treasure, yielding silver pouches and an amethyst.

The exercising Amazon was killed by the thief henchman even though the group had originally wanted to keep her alive for interrogation.

Then combat broke out against the two Amazons eating at a table. There was actually some roleplay during the fight. One tried to flee to ring an alarm bell but got stopped before she could. The other was subdued too.

All six bodies ended up hidden inside the mattresses.

The group continued north into a Y-shaped corridor and accidentally looped back around. During this exploration they encountered a patrol of two sword-wielding Amazons. One got instantly killed by an arrow through the eyes. The group knocked the second unconscious for future questioning.

Unfortunately, while dragging the corpse and the unconscious body through a hallway, both were turned into bloody paste by a mechanical trap.

After that, the players explored a prison block filled with cells. There was some angry roleplay with prisoners they rescued, encounters with rats, and many empty cells. More prisoners were eventually freed for extraction.

Then the party entered a massive 9x9 meter hexagonal chamber with exits on the diagonal walls. The room was wooden and covered in hay. It was basically the patrol nexus of the prison. Dozens of Amazons could rush in from every direction.

A giant bronze bell stood in the middle of the room.

Someone accidentally rang it.

The fighter immediately poured oil from a barrel across the exits and the center of the room.

Then the Amazons arrived.

Around forty of them flooded the corridors. Twenty managed to enter the chamber and used their initiative segments to close into melee range.

The fighter shouted in the Amazon language:

“If you attack, I drop the torch.”

The party was cornered.

The torch fell.

The ignition was catastrophic.

The flames spread so violently that the twenty Amazons still outside the room sealed the exits shut, sacrificing their own sisters to preserve the rest of the prison.

Everyone trapped inside burned to death.

Total Party Kill.

This map was created today on graph paper with 6 lines per inch. It was inspired by many of Grodog’s maps. It is my own version of Level 3 of the original Castle Greyhawk. It is a prison level.

North is oriented toward the top of the photograph. The northwest corner is directly copied from the original map. The rectangular rooms in this area, measuring 20' × 10', are prison cells intended for multiple prisoners. The square 10' × 10' cells are individual cells.

I have already started using a color code to key the map more quickly and in a more minimalist way than simply using numbers, and I decided to annotate it directly in pen.

C est mon premier donjon dans le monde de greyhawk situé dans les contreforts occidentaux des rakers, dans la théocratie du pale. C'est un ancien monastère souterrain devenu une nécropole secrète. Il est dans la vallée cachée à l'ouest des Rakers entre hawkburgh et les cols perdus de Tenh.

Il appartenait à l'ordre du voile cendré, une ancienne secte monastique hérétique fondée vers -90 CY les moines y pratiquaient la méditation dans les cryptes, la privation sensorielle et la conservation des corps saints. Officiellement ils prétendaient servir Pholtus. Mais ils décrivaient lentement vers Wee Jas. Des rituels ont très mal tourné et la crypte est actuellement peuplée de morts vivants.

J ai réalisé la carte sur du papier quadrillé de 6 lignes par pouces au crayons à papier il est à noter que certaines salles sont des petits ensemble de salles recopiés des donjons de Grodog et une partie du labyrinthe est quasiment identique à la carte du niveau 1 du Castle Greyhawk original photographié en convention dans le classeur de Gary en 2007 le reste j' ai tout inventé. Cette carte s inscrit dans la tradition des cartes de Gary, Rob, et Allan. Beaucoup de zones sont labyrintiques, et il est à noter que certaines zones n' ont pas encore d' accès c est normal je préfère ne pas me poser trop de contraintes pré développement. Chaques carreaux fait 10×10 pieds.

Je propose de passer à la description j' ai brainstormé au préalable sur les deux face d une feuille de papier :

- La région du nord-ouest de l étage contient : Une grande salle polygonale en haut à gauche. Une salle octogonale centrale. Ainsi qu'une une rotonde circulaire attenante. Toute cette zone constitué un temple ancien. La salle polygonale supérieure gauche est une salle ceremorielle. Le complexe octogonal est un mausolé, ils constitue un hub secondaire étant relié à plusieurs axes. Le petit cercle adjacent est quand à lui une crypte verticale je voulais inclure la verticalité et je cherche d'ailleurs d'autres moyens d'inclure de la verticalitée.

- La Zone Nord-Est est très différente avec des boyeaux beaucoup plus longs,des pièces répétitives, j ai pensé l agencement pour une circulation serrée qui représente un vrai défi de cartographie pour les joueurs lors des expéditions. Il y à ce long couloir qui contient 13 alcôves. Cette région serts à la fois à contenir les niches funéraires et les quartiers des moines.

- Au centre de la carte il y à plusieurs salles irrégulières, des grands volumes ouverts, et des intersections multiples. La salle à double courbe est un temple effondré, elle sert aussi d'espace pivot puisqu'elle connecte plusieurs zones entre elles.

- Le sud ouest est la région des cavernes, elle est extrêmement organique, il y à une rivière qui est une source d'eau potable souterraine et un lieu probable pour que les aventuriers puissent poser un campement pour organiser les explorations du donjon. Les cavernes sont pleines de champignons et de moisissures avec des spores dans l'air.

- Le complexe labyrintique du Sud-Est. Il s'agit de la zone la plus dense c'est dans cette zone que ce trouve l'escalier en colimaçon qui permet d'entrer dans le donjon. Il s'agit d'un labyrinte de protection gavé de pièges mortels à la tomb of horror certains magiques dont seul les moines connaissaient la manière de pénétrer dans leurs monastère.

I had an absolute blast with this solo session, it was amazing. I played AD&D 1E strictly RAW. As a reminder, during the second session Aldith Stommere spent more than a full day traveling through the countryside of Polaris toward the city of Zonreiryd. She slaughtered part of a herd of cows and ate meat from one of them.

So this was Session 3, my favorite one so far.

Aldith arrived safely in the city of Zonreiryd. After flirting with a few people in a tavern and resting there, she recruited a second adventurer: Elarkein, a little nod to Mordenkainen. He was an old man in a blue traveling robe carrying a staff. He had enough money to buy water and food so that he and Aldith could explore Castle Zonreiryd.

The two adventurers descended side by side down a staircase of dirty limestone from the city sewers of Zonreiryd. They arrived in a space 20 feet wide and 30 feet long facing west, containing two exits upstairs and two arched openings cut from blocks of stone: one in the south wall and another in the western wall. The room was damp and smelled of stale bread.

Aldith crouched to the floor and crawled through the room for one full turn searching for any light source, but there were none. During those ten minutes Elarkein stood in the northeast corner of the room near the stairs, ready to cast the Sleep spell he had memorized against any hostile entity. Aldith became tangled in dense spider webs and found no source of light.

The two adventurers decided that Elarkein would light a torch and hold it in his left hand while continuing to carry his staff in his right. Aldith walked to his left with her two-handed sword ready while her shield hung on her back with leather straps.

At this point they had already spent fourteen minutes inside the dungeon. I should note that I was tracking time and movement strictly in a notebook and on sheets of paper.

The two adventurers decided to head toward the southern arched exit after spending three rounds examining the spider webs for traps. They entered a dark passage dimly illuminated by an unknown source of light. The corridor ended to the east at an iron-banded oak door and continued westward. It measured 10 feet wide.

Elarkein tapped the ground ahead with his wizard’s staff searching for traps, as well as the walls on either side. There were no traps. The group carefully moved westward, though the marching order changed: Aldith now advanced first, ready to react immediately, while Elarkein illuminated the way from behind.

The corridor stretched southward for 40 feet before turning sharply 90 degrees west and continuing another 80 feet toward an unprotected white birchwood door.

The two adventurers listened at the door. Aldith had to remove her armor first. After several minutes of listening and a successful hearing check, they heard nothing. Elarkein set down his staff and opened the door only to find a wall of granite blocks mortared together 10 feet ahead, extending northward for 60 feet before ending abruptly.

We lost thirty minutes just taking this route. Even though the passage beyond the white birch door also extended southward, I decided the adventurers would retrace their steps to the starting area. They did so, and by applying the “by the book” movement rules, since movement speed is multiplied by five in familiar areas, they made the return trip in only a few minutes.

So the two adventurers returned to the starting chamber, avoided the spider webs, and took the western opening instead. It led into a large dark room that took several turns to fully explore and search in order to visualize properly. The chamber measured 30 by 50 feet and resembled a filthy dumping ground full of small rats and garbage. There was an arched opening in the southwest corner.

The room appeared to have once been some kind of Greco-Roman-style pool because of the stagnant basin of water in the center.

We extinguished the torches and rested for ten minutes while remaining alert, since we had already been down there for an hour. Elarkein lit a new torch and the adventurers performed a second examination of the room searching for anything useful.

Aldith found a nearly edible chicken. It seemed too good to be true, so Elarkein with his staff and Aldith with her sword carefully prodded both the chicken and the ground for traps, and surprise! There really was a 10-foot-deep pit trap.

The two adventurers decided not to linger there and quickly walked side by side toward the southwest exit, which opened into an empty 20-by-20-foot room. The floor was sandy, and several holes in the ceiling opened into the sewers above. Through those holes faint rays of light filtered down. Some dripped water while others dropped dust into the chamber.

There was an arched exit to the north and another to the west. We took the western exit, which led into an identical room except that it contained smashed cabinets. We searched it and found nothing, so we returned to the previous chamber and chose the other path.

We entered a dark rectangular room measuring 10 by 20 feet, completely empty except for another arched opening to the west. We took it and arrived in another identical room.

We made several searches for secret doors before finally discovering one in the northwest corner. We tried pivoting it, pulling it toward us, pulling it the other way, and opening it from both sides, but what finally worked was lifting it upward. The mechanism triggered with a heavy grinding sound.

We immediately entered a brightly lit room illuminated by lanterns and smelling like wet dog. Judging by eye, the room measured around 20 by 40 feet. There was a row of four columns ahead of us, with debris and broken wood scattered everywhere, and then, damn it, kobolds came rushing out.

Five kobolds. Naturally, we were surprised. They won initiative.

During their segment they advanced toward us, but each of us stood on opposite sides of the columns. As soon as our group could act, Aldith fired her crossbow at the kobold approaching her and killed it instantly.

Elarkein cast Sleep on the group of kobolds and every single one of them fell unconscious.

I thought for a moment about whether we should kill them in their sleep, but we decided to spare their lives instead and searched the area for loot, recovering a dagger and some rations.

Then it was straight back to the sewers and up to the surface to re-enter the city of Zonreiryd. That’s where I stopped the session.

The game was fantastic. I used my dungeon map, an incomplete and minimalist encounter key just enough to make the level function, and a whole bunch of random tables for all sorts of things. It was really cool, and I decided to use my notes to flesh out and properly develop the new first level of Castle Zonreiryd.

When my friends eventually explore it, they won’t have the map, so they’ll have to cartograph the dungeon from my descriptions. Everything will be unknown and left to discover for them.

AD&D 1E Solo Session 3

I had an absolute blast with this solo session, it was amazing. I played AD&D 1E strictly RAW. As a reminder, during the second session Aldith Stommere spent more than a full day traveling through the countryside of Polaris toward the city of Zonreiryd. She slaughtered part of a herd of cows and ate meat from one of them.

So this was Session 3, my favorite one so far.

Aldith arrived safely in the city of Zonreiryd. After flirting with a few people in a tavern and resting there, she recruited a second adventurer: Elarkein, a little nod to Mordenkainen. He was an old man in a blue traveling robe carrying a staff. He had enough money to buy water and food so that he and Aldith could explore Castle Zonreiryd.

The two adventurers descended side by side down a staircase of dirty limestone from the city sewers of Zonreiryd. They arrived in a space 20 feet wide and 30 feet long facing west, containing two exits upstairs and two arched openings cut from blocks of stone: one in the south wall and another in the western wall. The room was damp and smelled of stale bread.

Aldith crouched to the floor and crawled through the room for one full turn searching for any light source, but there were none. During those ten minutes Elarkein stood in the northeast corner of the room near the stairs, ready to cast the Sleep spell he had memorized against any hostile entity. Aldith became tangled in dense spider webs and found no source of light.

The two adventurers decided that Elarkein would light a torch and hold it in his left hand while continuing to carry his staff in his right. Aldith walked to his left with her two-handed sword ready while her shield hung on her back with leather straps.

At this point they had already spent fourteen minutes inside the dungeon. I should note that I was tracking time and movement strictly in a notebook and on sheets of paper.

The two adventurers decided to head toward the southern arched exit after spending three rounds examining the spider webs for traps. They entered a dark passage dimly illuminated by an unknown source of light. The corridor ended to the east at an iron-banded oak door and continued westward. It measured 10 feet wide.

Elarkein tapped the ground ahead with his wizard’s staff searching for traps, as well as the walls on either side. There were no traps. The group carefully moved westward, though the marching order changed: Aldith now advanced first, ready to react immediately, while Elarkein illuminated the way from behind.

The corridor stretched southward for 40 feet before turning sharply 90 degrees west and continuing another 80 feet toward an unprotected white birchwood door.

The two adventurers listened at the door. Aldith had to remove her armor first. After several minutes of listening and a successful hearing check, they heard nothing. Elarkein set down his staff and opened the door only to find a wall of granite blocks mortared together 10 feet ahead, extending northward for 60 feet before ending abruptly.

We lost thirty minutes just taking this route. Even though the passage beyond the white birch door also extended southward, I decided the adventurers would retrace their steps to the starting area. They did so, and by applying the “by the book” movement rules, since movement speed is multiplied by five in familiar areas, they made the return trip in only a few minutes.

So the two adventurers returned to the starting chamber, avoided the spider webs, and took the western opening instead. It led into a large dark room that took several turns to fully explore and search in order to visualize properly. The chamber measured 30 by 50 feet and resembled a filthy dumping ground full of small rats and garbage. There was an arched opening in the southwest corner.

The room appeared to have once been some kind of Greco-Roman-style pool because of the stagnant basin of water in the center.

We extinguished the torches and rested for ten minutes while remaining alert, since we had already been down there for an hour. Elarkein lit a new torch and the adventurers performed a second examination of the room searching for anything useful.

Aldith found a nearly edible chicken. It seemed too good to be true, so Elarkein with his staff and Aldith with her sword carefully prodded both the chicken and the ground for traps, and surprise! There really was a 10-foot-deep pit trap.

The two adventurers decided not to linger there and quickly walked side by side toward the southwest exit, which opened into an empty 20-by-20-foot room. The floor was sandy, and several holes in the ceiling opened into the sewers above. Through those holes faint rays of light filtered down. Some dripped water while others dropped dust into the chamber.

There was an arched exit to the north and another to the west. We took the western exit, which led into an identical room except that it contained smashed cabinets. We searched it and found nothing, so we returned to the previous chamber and chose the other path.

We entered a dark rectangular room measuring 10 by 20 feet, completely empty except for another arched opening to the west. We took it and arrived in another identical room.

We made several searches for secret doors before finally discovering one in the northwest corner. We tried pivoting it, pulling it toward us, pulling it the other way, and opening it from both sides, but what finally worked was lifting it upward. The mechanism triggered with a heavy grinding sound.

We immediately entered a brightly lit room illuminated by lanterns and smelling like wet dog. Judging by eye, the room measured around 20 by 40 feet. There was a row of four columns ahead of us, with debris and broken wood scattered everywhere, and then, damn it, kobolds came rushing out.

Five kobolds. Naturally, we were surprised. They won initiative.

During their segment they advanced toward us, but each of us stood on opposite sides of the columns. As soon as our group could act, Aldith fired her crossbow at the kobold approaching her and killed it instantly.

Elarkein cast Sleep on the group of kobolds and every single one of them fell unconscious.

I thought for a moment about whether we should kill them in their sleep, but we decided to spare their lives instead and searched the area for loot, recovering a dagger and some rations.

Then it was straight back to the sewers and up to the surface to re-enter the city of Zonreiryd. That’s where I stopped the session.

The game was fantastic. I used my dungeon map, an incomplete and minimalist encounter key just enough to make the level function, and a whole bunch of random tables for all sorts of things. It was really cool, and I decided to use my notes to flesh out and properly develop the new first level of Castle Zonreiryd.

When my friends eventually explore it, they won’t have the map, so they’ll have to cartograph the dungeon from my descriptions. Everything will be unknown and left to discover for them.

Je me suis absolument éclaté avec cette session solo, c’était incroyable. J’ai joué à AD&D 1E strictement RAW. Pour rappel, durant la deuxième session, Aldith Stommere avait passé plus d’une journée entière à voyager à travers la campagne de Polaris en direction de la ville de Zonreiryd. Elle avait massacré une partie d’un troupeau de vaches et mangé la viande de l’une d’elles.

Donc voici la Session 3, ma préférée jusqu’à présent.

Aldith arriva saine et sauve dans la ville de Zonreiryd. Après avoir flirté avec quelques personnes dans une taverne et s’y être reposée, elle recruta un second aventurier : Elarkein, un petit clin d’œil à Mordenkainen. C’était un vieil homme vêtu d’une robe de voyage bleue et portant un bâton. Il avait suffisamment d’argent pour acheter de l’eau et de la nourriture afin que lui et Aldith puissent explorer le Château Zonreiryd.

Les deux aventuriers descendirent côte à côte un escalier de calcaire sale depuis les égouts de la ville de Zonreiryd. Ils arrivèrent dans un espace de 20 pieds de large sur 30 pieds de long orienté vers l’ouest, contenant deux sorties menant vers le haut ainsi que deux ouvertures voûtées taillées dans des blocs de pierre : l’une dans le mur sud et l’autre dans le mur ouest. La pièce était humide et sentait le pain rassis.

Aldith s’accroupit au sol et traversa la pièce en rampant pendant un tour complet à la recherche d’une source de lumière, mais il n’y en avait aucune. Durant ces dix minutes, Elarkein resta dans le coin nord-est de la pièce près des escaliers, prêt à lancer le sort Sommeil qu’il avait mémorisé contre toute entité hostile. Aldith se retrouva empêtrée dans d’épaisses toiles d’araignée et ne trouva aucune source de lumière.

Les deux aventuriers décidèrent qu’Elarkein allumerait une torche et la tiendrait dans sa main gauche tout en continuant à porter son bâton dans la droite. Aldith marchait à sa gauche, son épée à deux mains prête tandis que son bouclier pendait dans son dos grâce à des sangles de cuir.

À ce moment-là, ils avaient déjà passé quatorze minutes dans le donjon. Je précise que je suivais le temps et les déplacements de manière stricte dans un carnet et sur des feuilles de papier.

Les deux aventuriers décidèrent de se diriger vers la sortie voûtée sud après avoir passé trois rounds à examiner les toiles d’araignée à la recherche de pièges. Ils entrèrent dans un passage sombre faiblement éclairé par une source lumineuse inconnue. Le corridor se terminait à l’est par une porte de chêne cerclée de fer et continuait vers l’ouest. Il mesurait 10 pieds de large.

Elarkein tapotait le sol devant lui avec son bâton de magicien à la recherche de pièges, ainsi que les murs de chaque côté. Il n’y avait aucun piège. Le groupe avança prudemment vers l’ouest, bien que l’ordre de marche changeât : Aldith progressait désormais en tête, prête à réagir immédiatement, tandis qu’Elarkein éclairait le chemin depuis l’arrière.

Le corridor s’étendait vers le sud sur 40 pieds avant de tourner brusquement à 90 degrés vers l’ouest et de continuer encore sur 80 pieds jusqu’à une porte en bois de bouleau blanc sans protection.

Les deux aventuriers écoutèrent à la porte. Aldith dut d’abord retirer son armure. Après plusieurs minutes d’écoute et un test d’audition réussi, ils n’entendirent rien. Elarkein posa son bâton et ouvrit la porte pour ne découvrir qu’un mur de blocs de granit maçonnés à 10 pieds devant eux, s’étendant vers le nord sur 60 pieds avant de s’arrêter brusquement.

Nous avons perdu trente minutes rien qu’en empruntant cet itinéraire. Même si le passage derrière la porte en bouleau blanc continuait également vers le sud, j’ai décidé que les aventuriers rebrousseraient chemin jusqu’à la zone de départ. Ils le firent, et en appliquant les règles de déplacement « by the book », puisque la vitesse de déplacement est multipliée par cinq dans les zones familières, ils effectuèrent le trajet de retour en seulement quelques minutes.

Les deux aventuriers revinrent donc à la chambre de départ, évitèrent les toiles d’araignée et empruntèrent cette fois l’ouverture ouest. Elle menait à une grande salle obscure qui nécessita plusieurs tours complets d’exploration et de fouille afin d’être correctement visualisée. La salle mesurait 30 sur 50 pieds et ressemblait à une décharge immonde remplie de petits rats et d’ordures. Une ouverture voûtée se trouvait dans le coin sud-ouest.

La pièce semblait avoir autrefois été une sorte de bassin de style gréco-romain à cause de l’eau stagnante située en son centre.

Nous avons éteint les torches et nous sommes reposés pendant dix minutes tout en restant vigilants, car nous étions déjà là-dessous depuis une heure. Elarkein alluma une nouvelle torche et les aventuriers procédèrent à une seconde inspection de la pièce à la recherche de quoi que ce soit d’utile.

Aldith trouva un poulet presque comestible. Cela semblait trop beau pour être vrai, alors Elarkein avec son bâton et Aldith avec son épée sondèrent soigneusement à la fois le poulet et le sol à la recherche de pièges, et surprise ! Il y avait effectivement une fosse piégée de 10 pieds de profondeur.

Les deux aventuriers décidèrent de ne pas s’attarder là et avancèrent rapidement côte à côte vers la sortie sud-ouest, qui débouchait sur une salle vide de 20 pieds sur 20. Le sol était sablonneux et plusieurs trous dans le plafond ouvraient vers les égouts au-dessus. À travers ces ouvertures, de faibles rayons de lumière filtraient jusqu’en bas. Certaines laissaient tomber de l’eau tandis que d’autres faisaient tomber de la poussière dans la salle.

Il y avait une sortie voûtée au nord et une autre à l’ouest. Nous avons pris la sortie ouest, qui menait à une salle identique, sauf qu’elle contenait des armoires brisées. Nous l’avons fouillée sans rien trouver, puis nous sommes revenus à la salle précédente afin de choisir l’autre chemin.

Nous sommes entrés dans une salle rectangulaire sombre de 10 sur 20 pieds, complètement vide à l’exception d’une autre ouverture voûtée à l’ouest. Nous l’avons empruntée et sommes arrivés dans une autre salle identique.

Nous avons effectué plusieurs recherches de portes secrètes avant d’en découvrir finalement une dans le coin nord-ouest. Nous avons essayé de la faire pivoter, de la tirer vers nous, de la tirer dans l’autre sens et de l’ouvrir depuis les deux côtés, mais ce qui fonctionna finalement fut de la soulever vers le haut. Le mécanisme se déclencha avec un lourd bruit de grincement.

Nous sommes immédiatement entrés dans une salle vivement éclairée par des lanternes et sentant le chien mouillé. À vue d’œil, la pièce mesurait environ 20 sur 40 pieds. Une rangée de quatre colonnes se dressait devant nous, avec des débris et du bois brisé éparpillés partout, et puis, bordel, des kobolds surgirent en courant.

Cinq kobolds. Naturellement, nous avons été surpris. Ils remportèrent l’initiative.

Durant leur segment, ils avancèrent vers nous, mais chacun de nous se tenait de part et d’autre des colonnes. Dès que notre groupe put agir, Aldith tira avec son arbalète sur le kobold qui s’approchait d’elle et le tua instantanément.

Elarkein lança Sommeil sur le groupe de kobolds et chacun d’eux tomba inconscient.

J’ai réfléchi un instant à l’idée de les tuer dans leur sommeil, mais nous avons finalement décidé de leur laisser la vie sauve et avons fouillé la zone à la recherche de butin, récupérant une dague et quelques rations.

Ensuite, retour direct vers les égouts puis remontée à la surface afin de réintégrer la ville de Zonreiryd. C’est là que j’ai arrêté la session.

La partie était fantastique. J’ai utilisé mon plan du donjon, une clé de rencontres incomplète et minimaliste juste suffisante pour faire fonctionner le niveau, ainsi qu’un énorme tas de tables aléatoires pour toutes sortes de choses. C’était vraiment génial, et j’ai décidé d’utiliser mes notes pour étoffer et développer correctement ce nouveau premier niveau du Château Zonreiryd.

Quand mes amis finiront par l’explorer, ils n’auront pas la carte, donc ils devront cartographier le donjon à partir de mes descriptions. Tout leur sera inconnu et restera à découvrir.

I’m recreating this level of my dungeon in an outrageously over-the-top 1950s pulp sci-fi style. It’s intended for fairly high-level OSRIC tournament play. It’s very clearly inspired by Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

If I end up publishing it as an OSRIC tournament module, would anyone perhaps be interested in helping me with the illustrations, creating a blueprint-style version of the module, doing the layout, and publishing it as a free PDF?

*(I hope this isn’t inappropriate or coming across as self-promotion.)*

Today I’m starting a solo AD&D 1E campaign. So far, I’ve gone down into a dungeon with a single level 1 character and, obviously, zero henchmen: Aldith Stommere, a human warrior. I tried searching for traps but didn’t find any, and I managed to open a door after two attempts. I wedged it open with pitons so I could flee if necessary. Then I moved down the corridor with a lantern I bought in the village, probing the floor with my hands every ten feet looking for traps, only to come face to face with a group of five fucking kobolds!!! Luckily, they’re surprised, but I’m going to try negotiating and running away first. Otherwise, if I need to reach the door from earlier, I’ll fight those kobolds as a last resort, because I know Aldith is going to die before I even get the chance to create more characters.

Here is a guide to OSR “tournaments.”

Working, drinking coffee, and grabbing the old DMG from the 1980s every five minutes to check tables. I’m currently expanding the dungeon. At the same time, I’m taking breaks to keep making progress on writing the guide for Old School tournaments that I need to publish on my Substack.

This is my first published OSR module. I’ve done a crazy amount of work over the past few days and haven’t talked about it much. It is the 6th floor of Castle Zonreiryd, the real one, the one I ran for students of my high school at my place. I had to gather both my mental notes and my physical notes, the physical ones being extremely minimal, and rewrite everything I had imagined for the floor into a clear and readable module format. I also considered illustrating it, but my art skills are still very limited at the moment, and I am deeply opposed to generative AI, which destroys, steals from, and threatens the work of writers and artists, so I decided not to illustrate the module.

Here it is in full on my Substack, available for free in the international language. It is made for AD&D 1E and its retro-clone OSRIC, but it is easily compatible with most OSR systems that are fairly close to that ruleset with a bit of work.

A few months ago, I loved the B/X expert rules because they contained the best wilderness exploration rules I had ever seen. Now that I’ve moved on to AD&D, I’ve found the DMG rules to be even better and more robust: six time periods in a day to roll random encounters and make logistical decisions, rules for fatigue, a terrain generator (which I haven’t used yet), not only rules for land adventures and naval adventures like in B/X, but also rules for underwater and aerial adventures, and above all, truly excellent random encounter tables.

And that’s probably the most amazing part. I mean, the DMG and WSG rules (I’ve borrowed some of them) are the best engine for wilderness adventures that I know, but what’s even better is how simple they are to prepare.

An advanced hexcrawl doesn’t mean filling every hex and assigning each one a number. It means that everything you need to run hours of travel is just the core rulebooks, a map, a few planned encounters, and random encounters for each biome, that’s it. With that, you have an open world for travel adventures like Minecraft.

No need for an hex key, no need for rolls, no need for all that extra stuff.

That’s how hexcrawls worked in the 1970s, and it’s that way of doing hexcrawls that has given me my best tabletop hexcrawl experiences.

Long live the advanced hexcrawl!

A few months ago, I loved the B/X expert rules because they contained the best wilderness exploration rules I had ever seen. Now that I’ve moved on to AD&D, I’ve found the DMG rules to be even better and more robust: six time periods in a day to roll random encounters and make logistical decisions, rules for fatigue, a terrain generator (which I haven’t used yet), not only rules for land adventures and naval adventures like in B/X, but also rules for underwater and aerial adventures, and above all, truly excellent random encounter tables.

And that’s probably the most amazing part. I mean, the DMG and WSG rules (I’ve borrowed some of them) are the best engine for wilderness adventures that I know, but what’s even better is how simple they are to prepare.

An advanced hexcrawl doesn’t mean filling every hex and assigning each one a number. It means that everything you need to run hours of travel is just the core rulebooks, a map, a few planned encounters, and random encounters for each biome, that’s it. With that, you have an open world for travel adventures like Minecraft.

No need for an hex key, no need for rolls, no need for all that extra stuff.

That’s how hexcrawls worked in the 1970s, and it’s that way of doing hexcrawls that has given me my best tabletop hexcrawl experiences.

Long live the advanced hexcrawl!

This is my shelfie as a 16-year-old grognard. I started with D&D 5E like everyone else at age 12, and I got the rulebooks at 13. Then I got interested in OSR through OSE and DCC RPG at 14, and I chose DCC RPG at 14. I found it so much better than D&D 5E that I spent far more time with the DCC books than with those of the 5th edition. I was really into their style.

By the way, as you’ll notice, my 5E DMG had a recent accident… it no longer has a spine. Anyway, I don’t play it anymore.

I chose a B/X omnibus in my native language, French, rather than OSE to play B/X, because I’ve always considered OSE to be just a succession of rules without the flavor of Moldvay and Cook’s texts.

I don’t really play B/X anymore; I’ve moved on to the Advanced rules, as you can see. I collected all the books except the 2E PHB in two months. That PHB belonged to my mother, and recently I also ordered a 1E manual.

A Monster Manual from the third printing, without the yellow band and with red lettering, the cover is worn and some monsters have been colored in, so it decreased its price, but it has more sentimental value to me.

I recently received a DMG from the fourth printing (December 1979). I already have the POD versions, but I felt the originals look more impressive for playing.

Anyway, here is my collection as a teenager.

This article aims to explain the RAW dungeon exploration rules in AD&D 1st Edition for new players of this edition.

This well-worn old guy made the trip all the way from the USA to my home in Normandy, France. It works perfectly, and it’s now my third backup/spare unit.

The PODs are nice, but the originals always have more character when it comes to playing!

It was used by teenagers in the 1980s and will continue to be used by teenagers in the 2020s! My mother bought it on eBay for $35.