[ShadowDark Solo] Rufus & Silas, session 04

Session four, things start to get exciting and very dangerous! Let's go!

Product I used this session:
ShadowDark RPG (link)
SoloDark (link)
https://questingbeast.itch.io/knave-second-edition

The trio head out and have an on the trail encounter they opt to pass up. Here I grabbed the Knave 2e travel tables to get some interesting and I think, not atypical encounters. Midjourney also came up with some amazing visuals.

Continuing along they come to the first tower and discover that the last part of the journey is going to be more difficult than they expected...then I roll check for an encounter and things start to get dicey. Here I switched back to the ShadowDark encounter tables. 

Ok, here goes. Here some solo peeps are going to cry foul, but oh well. I am running the game with two PCs, so I reduced the number of baddies encountered from the basic table. Why? While I want this challenging and interesting, I do not want to die constantly and repeatedly. I expect to play the PCs smartly and there will certainly be death, but I do not want to stack the deck against every single encounter. If I was DMing a small group and rolled this encounter, 3d6 - potentially 18 freaking hobgoblins - is a lot for a 2nd level party to take on and I would likely reduce that. 

Anyway, it's my game, suck it.

Unfortunately these guys are not in the chatting mood and charge immediately (much to their leaders woe) the trio, and to top it off, the party is split!

I struggled here a little, I wanted a map to help visualize the situation and, as a mapper I wanted to draw one, but I wanted this to be quick and not get swept up in drawing a map and delay the game. So instead I hopped on Google and typed "topographic map" and then looked around until I found something with a ridge and some steep hills. Took all of five minutes to locate and drop into GoodNotes. I think it worked out great, helped visualize the area but looks pretty damn cool 'taped' into the page too. ;-)

I also wrote up our friend Gaspard as well.

The trio win initiative the first round but it dawns on me quickly that this could go badly. Luckily I had given Gaspard a bow so we have ranged attack ability besides just Silas' sling (which oddly is not listed as a weapon in ShadowDark...wtf???)

Just a quick side note: all of the remaining pages in this session were played while seated in a very crowded, and very delayed, American Airlines plane in the air. I used my iPad, the PDFs, and a die roller app on my phone. Worked perfectly in a small, crowded space.

The first round goes fairly well and we also win the second round of initiative. The second round goes just as well, heroes inflicting damage but receiving none! 

The third round the trio loses initiative but luckily the bowmen are blind and unable to hit. The Hobgob leader though nails Rufus for 5 damage, a solid hit. The trio suddenly break the lines of Hobgobs and drop two of them, causing the remaining to fail their morale check. We they are on the run!

The fourth round we drop the last bowman and the leader, now realizing he is in deadly trouble, sprints for the ridge hoping to escape.

Round five, Rufus thinks a moment about sparing the leader, maybe questioning him, then changes his mind and drops him.

The battle won, the trio take a breath and assess the situation, trying to figure out what to do because they are still split. Silas crosses back, grabs the rope, and returns to the tower side. I rolled these with advantage, assuming that having done it once, it would be easier the second and third time.

Once Rufus was over they searched the area. Gaspard stayed with the horses, providing overwatch with his bow. A few attempts later, Silas finds the top safe and looks into an open trap door in the roof as Rufus climbs. Inside, Silas discovers a body laying on the floor!

I hope you are all enjoying reading these sessions, I am having a great time playing.

PDF version of the session: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gEg6T_-wArYhXv--sKDE6BTR9ZkI66Sl/view?usp=sharing

Kord of Bhaal and the Temple of the Apes

Kord stumbles into the lair of a white ape tribe while searching for the lost treasure of Kimbaru for Princess Illystandra who has bewitched with her dark sorcery.

[ShadowDark Solo] Rufus & Silas, session 03

Session three! I feel like this 'campaign' is really starting to pick up a little and I am in the groove, when I have mentally defeated all the "what ifs...", "do I use this, or this?", and a host of other decision paralysis thoughts that usually stop me from starting a game. On to the session!

I kick off this session with a little world building, using the ShadowDark Maps tables to develop some information on the Forge of Dendor. We get the rough size, that it is a tomb, and that it has something to do with the dead. This last fact makes Rufus and Silas a little nervous. I get a little ahead of myself and start to design a tomb...then I catch myself and head back to the gaming session...

The boys figure out that undead mean you need silver or silvered weapons. I borrow an idea from my friend Tim over at Gothridge Manor (described in the lower right corner). So we head to the local blacksmith shop to see about silvering. I use the tables in ShadowDark to whip up a quick shop and then use my oracle to handle the social interactions.

They settle up the account and realize all this chatter made them poorer and thirsty, so they head back to the Barnacled Dog to drink with Sixfingers a little. At this point I am feeling like I need an image of ol' Six so we know what we are dealing with. I get a wonderful reaction from Six when they walk in, he must like their coin. 

At this point I realize my guys are pretty poor and probably not ready to handle a large dungeon of undead, so an idea of smaller locations nearby hits me. I toss a prompt into MJ and get a wonderful looking tower high up on a mountainside and another idea hits me....

Another bar patron who knows some nearby, unexplored locations steps in.

This ends up becoming an entire valley with small tower forts high up, watchtowers of some sort. Gaspard (named after a guy who works for me) knows where they are and will guide them for a fee, 10% of what they pull out of the place. A deal is struck

I am really getting in the groove now, with things rolling along pretty well and easily. It is times like this that I enjoy solo gaming. It is a live creative jam session, rolling with ideas that come to me, rolling some dice, writing things up, and just going with the flow. I love it.

PDF version of the session: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FKxSw39_U28Gr8gKWypJ9hrleLTgihpT/view?usp=sharing

[ShadowDark Solo] Rufus & Silas, session 02

 

We pick up with session 2. The boys wake up and I decide to check the weather. For this I turn to a great supplement, Knave 2e. I have given my thoughts on Knave 2e elsewhere but in short "They system is so-so, organization of the book is terrible, but the numerous tables are well worth the price of admission." Here I will use the weather tables found on page 9. Roughly the same temperature as yesterday, clear skies with some strong winds. 

The guys head to the monastery and I whip up a quick description on the fly of the layout of the place. I decide I want to see what the headmaster looks like just in case we bump into him (I never end up meeting him but damn the picture is kickass). 

Luckily we do bump into a monk and he is pretty friendly and helpful. I randomly determine his name, Arlo, and use my Freedom Oracle to answer questions. The answers are really starting to form an adventure location pretty easily. We also comes across a ancient tome written in Middle Dwarvish, something I made up on the fly based on old, mission, modern English. I thought it would add to the flavor of the setting and add the feeling of age to the tome.

Sadly, we will have to wait until next session as this was a short one done over an hour or so one morning this week. What secrets does the tome hold and where will Rufus & Silas go next?

PDF version of the session: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13hLsDNck3AZkPDF version of the session:  lGfM6x6XR2uCaqPP1RUX/view?usp=sharing

[ShadowDark Solo] Rufus & Silas, session 01

 

I have discovered I think about gaming far more than I actually game these days. As such, I have determined that I am just going to shut up and do it all random, no preplanning, no thinking about it, just make it as I go sort of thing. I do not want to do too much 'prep as play' as it was, I just want to play. Two adventurers so it is easy to manage as well. So I rolled up two quickly and got a decent dawarven fighter and a really good halfling thief.

I am using three books as primary sources for this session:
ShadowDark RPG (link)
SoloDark (link)
Five Leagues from the Borderlands (link)

With the two characters I still needed a wee bit of prep, a sort of ‘why the F are we here’ kind of thing. A friend recently shared the Five Parsecs game and it got me looking at Five Leagues from the Borderlands. It has some really great tables for generating campaigns, as in the setting, reasons for there being a campaign, prompts, etc. it may not gel perfectly with an RPG, but a decent GM can make it work.

I used the tables to get a general setting where my game would take place:

Then a little set up to figure out why we are here and I kick off actual ‘playing’ Rufus & Silas. I dug a little into the background of my characters and discovered they stole from their employer. Here I used my oracle to determine results. Next I used the Dungeon Names table on page 7 of SoloDark to get the name of the hook that brought them here: The Forge of Dendor!

Using the information on the previous page, I feed it into Midjourney and got some cool, and more importantly, inspirational images that spark a little creativity in me. I was set to use the tables in ShadowDark to get the local tavern and inn names but they just came to me and I went with it, it is weird how that happens some times.

For the social interactions I am using a combination of my oracle and the NPC reaction table in ShadowDark. For many oracle questions it ends up being a 50-50 roll but that is great because it drives unexpected directions for the narrative. I love that Silas tries to get the server to loosen her lips with a wine and she is suspicious of him, perfectly natural! I used the NPC Qualities table on page 125 of ShadowDark to get the result "Six Fingers" and I thought it was a fantastic quality that could drive the entire character, so he became Sixfinger Sorak the barkeep. The drinks came from the Drinking table on page 137 of SD.

And that was session 1. I thought it went pretty well and has a great set up for further adventures and with a little fleshing out of the village and surrounding area. I can already see the potential for plenty of seeds for numerous adventures popping up. I ended up playing this 'session' out over the course of three days, playing a little here and there, some at work when the night got slow, etc.

PDF version of the session:  
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ef_zR4BfkDcsLsUh9HLPunpvgVUblWXq/view?usp=sharing

ShadowDark CS- take 2!

 

People are some whiney bitches, let me tell you. ;-)

Anyway, I made some changes to the file based on peoples' feedback on the character sheet. Updated files are over on the itch page:

https://mattjackson.itch.io/shadowdark-character-sheet

ShadowDark Character Sheet

 

So the other day I found these fantastic sheets(link) on the web but they seemed to only be available in print, very cool print, but since I do almost all my gaming on my iPad utilizing GoodNotes, this would not work for me. Check out the site though, I suggest supporting this creator, the character sheet notepads and the monster notepads are awesome! 

I remade them so I could use them in my games on GoodNotes. The sheets are fantastic in design so I basically replicated it with a few adjustments. Depending on how you use it you can download the image above, or use this link:

https://mattjackson.itch.io/shadowdark-character-sheet

Kord of Bhaal Among the Serpents

 

Kord discovers a small village sitting on the edge of a desert oasis is threatened by a horde of serpents hellbent on their destruction. For some reason they do not like Kord. Worse yet, they have taken the village chieftain's supple and gorgeous daughter! What is a barbarian to do?   ;-) 

Jorvik & Daket: Cewri Dung (writing included!)

I have been struggling to stick to writing, yes I have been writing but in my typical fashion I have skipped around. I have written the first Rock Johnson story (editor completed and said "good story but..." and I am just dreading going back to it). I have written the first 'chapter' of Duke Samson and the first chapter of Reed too. The going back is just hard for me. 

I have started to think that short, serial type stories where bits and pieces are released every so often might be the way to go for me. I tend to write in bursts, when ideas just explode from my mind and if I do not grab on and put ink to paper I lose it.

Anywho, I was at work Monday and playing around with MidJourney while I took a break and a particular image spoke to me and names, ideas, and situations came flooding at me. I went back to my desk and wrote for about 30 minutes and the below is the result. It is not perfect and it is short but I let a friend read it and he said "Nice to see an encounter using wits instead of mindless brawn" and indicated that he enjoyed the piece so I decided to show you guys that I am actually writing. I hope you enjoy.

I have included a PDF for those who wish to download and read rather than read on the blog:
Link to PDF: Cewri Dung

Jorvik & Daket

in

Cewri Dung

by M.S.Jackson

Jorvik tightened his grip on his blade, the cool leather-wrapped metal of the handle felt reassuring in his hand. His eyes darted from the dark cavern to his younger brother.

Daket narrowed his eyes, focused on the darkness at the cavern’s entrance. A low rumble emanated from the black, a low rolling noise that crawled up Daket’s spine like death crawling out of a grave. He broke his stare and turned with a nervous glance back to his older brother.

“Calm yourself, brother,” Jorvik said to his young sibling without moving his gaze. “We know not what evil lurks within.”

“Or what hunts us,” came Daket’s shaky  reply.

A footfall echoed from the darkness, pebbles crunched underfoot. A large foot. A deep huff followed.

Daket involuntarily took a step to the rear.

“Steady yourself Daket,” Jorvik made his voice as stern yet calm as possible. He too was nervous. While his sword arm was trained and hardened in battles against the Welsh demons, battle and blood was unknown to his brother. “It may yet prove to be nothing more than a heilian coo. Like Kyloe,” he named a childhood pet cow Daket had raised. He had intended to lighten his brother’s mood.

His words garnered a slight chuckle from his brother as memories of his childhood pet danced across his mind. Daket blinked, washing away old memories. He then tossed his brother a look, complex in that it balanced exasperation at his brother, nervousness, and fear in a gaze only moments long.

Another low rumble crept out of the cavern mouth.

Daket inched backwards. “Brother, can we not...”

“Enough!” Growled Jorvik through gritted teeth. “Stop your whining. You sound like a babe!”

Jorvik threw his brother a foul look, rolled his eyes, then turned back to the cavern. Under a low breath he added, “Mother would be embarrassed.”

A foot slammed the ground at the edge of the cavern’s shadows. The foot was huge. If the foot had come down upon Daket, nary a foot or hand would be seen.

A foul stench hit Daket’s nose, he squinted as if in agony and put his shield arm under his nose. He started to speak “Brother....” but his words failed him as his stomach churned.

“Hush!” Jorvik howled and sheathed his blade. Without notice he charged his brother, slammed into his side and plunged them both in a tangle into a large bush at the edge of the cavern’s mouth.

The pair rolled once and Jorvik came out on top, his hand over his brother’s mouth. His other hand came to his mouth and he hissed a “Shush, you fool!”

Through the leaves and branches of the bush Jorvik watched as the giant cautiously leaned under the outcropping the formed the roof of the cavern entrance. The behemoth stepped out and stood its full height, easily thrice that of a man. His legs were as thick as a man’s waist. Large arms as round as a man’s thigh dragged a tree trunk behind him, a makeshift club taller than a man stood.

Daket mouthed a single word, “Cewri,” his eyes huge with amazement.

Jorvik knew his little brother had never witnessed a true giant, or cewri in their mother’s tongue. He himself had been unfortunate to have crossed the paths of two before. He narrowly escaped death both times.

The giant stretched, raised his arms skyward. Jorvik’s eyes followed the outstretched arms skyward, lost them against the glare of the mid-day sun. The giant snorted, then bent over and pressed a finger to its nostril. A deep inhale was followed by a violent and explosive exhale through one side of the large nose. A massive blob of snot plopped down a dozen feet from the bush hiding the brothers. The smell struck them like a wall. The brothers fought the urge to toss their stomachs.

Then the giant scanned the horizon and sniffed the fresh morning air. Its large head swiveled away from the brothers’ bush and nostril flared as it sucked in the cool morning air. The giant jerked slightly, smelled something in the air, and turned in the brothers direction. The giant jutted its nose forward and took in a long, slow and deep breath, nostrils flared.

Jorvik saw what was happening and scanned his immediate area. Another visitor to the area had left behind something that might just do the trick. The scat was old and dry from the mountain winds, but Jorvik prayed the inside was moist and pungent enough to repulse the giant. He snatched his brother’s helm from his head and shoved it into the mound of dung, being sure to smear the scat across the front sides.

Beneath him, Daket was aghast. His favorite helm, given to him years ago by his uncle, was covered in foul smelling coo dung!

The giant stooped over the bush and took a deep, long breath. The giant jerked back quickly, released a rush of air and a foul look appeared on his ugly face. The beast made guttural grunt and stepped backward, striking its head on the overhang. It jerked forward, stumbled, moved away and got clear of the cavern entrance.

Minutes later, the giant in the distance, the brothers stood. Jorvik smiled and admired his handiwork as Daket studied his ruined helm.

“The helm will clean up fine,” he smiled and watched Daket clean a clump of dung off with a twig. He slapped his brother’s back. Hard. “And little brother, we live to fight another day!”

The Curse of Ardwyck

In the works for months....and finally released!  

Your players stumble into a village with a problem. An old cursed church has been a dark cloud over the lovely village of Malmesbury, ruining it's chance of being a happy little vacation spot for travelers and Mayor Windencroft has had enough! He needs a group of stalwart heroes to adventure into the cursed place and rid it of all the nasty things that have moved in. 

Check it out over on itch! (link)

Reed Adkins at Dead Falls

 

Why do bodies keep coming down the creek and plunging over Bridal Veil Falls? Reed is sent in to find out!

Kord of Bhaal The White Death

It was bound to happen. You can thank James over at Pits Perilous for reminding me of this.

Sword and Sorcery genre? Heck yes!

Reed Adkins on the Skeleton Trail

I feel like this should be an old western murder mystery. 

Reed's old friend, businessman Marcus Bethmoora asks him for help. Respected members of the town of Creede keep dropping dead. Marcus asks for Reed to hunt down the murderer before he becomes the next victim!

Facing the Fight

A break from my usual stuff. The folks over at USAA have put together a non-profit to help fight veteran suicide. Simply put, the numbers are staggering. 120k suicides since 2001. 57% higher than the national average. 120k means 400+ veterans a month commit suicide, a shocking number. We can do better.

Be your buddy's 6.
Never leave a friend behind.

Find out more at:
https://wefacethefight.org/