The Horror in Hommlet

“If they need more seasoning before continuing to the greater challenges, you may – and should – design and develop other adventures in the area” (Gygax et al. The Temple of Elemental Evil. 6).

I've been trying to get back into blogging on a regular basis. One of the projects that I started a while back was writing up stuff for use in a Temple of Elemental Evil campaign. I've long wanted to run this venerable module. Once I was able to free myself from the shackles of canon and accept that this would be my own version of ToEE I finally felt free to go crazy. I've already blogged about a number of locations in the town in the past and plan to write about a variety of other stuff that would be great in the campaign. 

One of the observations I've made about the T1-4 is that the town of Hommlet has way too many locations in it. Way more than any campaign could probably even use. Worst of all some offer absolutely no hint of what to do with them. While this is great empty space for a DM to fill in, it's also a lot of work to do. So I decided to try and brainstorm up little side quests, some of which are independent of the main plot that I thought would be fun to run. I've also in some cases changed things up from the original text in order to keep things fresh and interesting. Even if you're not using Hommlet, these seeds could be used with modification for a village in your own campaigns. For more info see the Ultimate Greyhawk sidebar to the top right of my blog.

12. The Barinov Farm

Lurgo, a giant of a farmer lives here with family. His son Bogdan (age 20) is just a large as his father, and both tower over Lurgo’s wife Misha and their six daughters: Nadya (age 19), Karina (age 21), Roksanna (age 17), Sabina (age 15), Agatha (age 14) and Daria (age 13). The eldest daughter Karina has a 5-month old baby boy named Yuri from an unknown father which may come up in town gossip from time to time. These folk are quite friendly and have been members of the town for as long as anyone can remember. They practice the Old Faith and Lurgo and his eldest three children are part of the militia, though now with Karina a mother she is less likely to leave on ant sort of mission beyond the town.  

Adventure Seed: Horror in Hommlet

The smiling and friendliness of the Barinov family is a façade, but it wasn’t always this way. In fact, it was the very open and hospitable nature of the family that lead to this present state of  forced happiness and attempting to mask the melancholy that envelops the family. 

Little less that a year and a half ago (more precisely 14 months ago), the family took in a stranger. At the time it was hard to believe that the pitiful and malnourished man named Varek could be a danger. But a danger he was. Taking pity the this wretch  lying in the road they took him in. Varek claimed that he was a down on his luck traveller. He left out the part about how he was a thief and a murder originally from Dyvers. 

One day having recovered much of his strength, Varek found Karina in the family barn alone. Overcome with lust he raped the young woman. her youngest sister, Daria discovering Varek attacking her, rushed to get her father. Lurgo and his son rushed in and in the heat of the moment killed Varek. That night the family fearful of the repercussions buried Varek’s body in the copse of woods between their farm and the Weavers House (Area 10). Later it was discovered that Karina had fallen pregnant. Ashamed of the blood on their hands, it almost seemed as if the family's faith in the Oerth Mother was speaking to them saying "a life for a life". Thus nine months later Yuri was born.

But that was not the end of Varek. By some unknown circumstance his vile soul of Varek found itself bound into a Scarecrow (5e MM p.268) in the Barinov’s corn field. In the next few days he will begin to murder the family members one by one and anyone who gets in his way. When the family is dead who will be the Varek’s next victim(s)? Will the heros get involved and help solve the mystery of the Horror in Hommlet?

Rolling the Bones: The Ability Score Experiment

When I started my new D&D 5e campaign in January I had planned on having a session zero devoted to character generation. At the time it looked like I would only have 3 players, two of whom were brand new to RPGs.  I was happily surprised to discover that these two new players, on their own initiative, decided to make characters via our Facebook Messenger group. One of the players made the choice to make his character using a method I thought was really hard core. His method was Roll 3d6 six times to make two sets, choose the best one and place in order. My first impulse was to quash this and tell them to just use the rules outlined in the Player’s Handbook. But then I stopped and thought about it. I had a bunch of new players who were willing to make less powerful characters for the sake of the roleplaying opportunities that might arise from it.

This method was accepted by the group and worked fine. Before the second session started we had two new player’s join the group. These two players were very familiar with 5e and balked at the idea. Both of these players told me they had a hard time making characters. One player even told me he had thought of dropping out before even starting because of his frustration making the character he wanted. In the end that player did drop out due to scheduling issues. This was a shame because he really added to the group and the campaign as a whole.

I can attest that this method is frustrating and difficult. I had a hell of time making characters when I tested it out myself. The problem I’ve discovered is that players come to the game with the idea of a class they’re excited to play, and when the stats they roll up prevent them from effectively playing what they want it’s frustrating. I don't see this as a case of power gaming as much as it's a case of wanting to play a character that is competent. The current method means that they either have to play a sub par character, or choose a class that they don’t want to play. Both options are understandably unappealing. 

One of the unexpected advantages of playing at my local game store is that they keep sending me people interested in playing D&D. Thus, this week I have another batch of new players joining the group. Since we only have about two hours of play time it’s imperative that the players are ready to play as soon as everyone arrives. Therefore, people need to have their characters ready. Which brings me to my long winded point. In an effort to make the game more “interesting” I made the game more difficult and less appealing. If I had gone with character creation as per the book I could have just let players make the characters they wanted to play, increasing the fun, and allow new players join in without having to spend my time explaining the method and then frustrating them with its limitations. The evidence thus far has shown no obvious advantage to creating characters with this harsh method. If anything it has detracted from the game. 

As a busy person in real life I don’t want to spend my time vetting characters. I do however, want a sense of balance and fairness at the table. I’ve decided to end this “experiment”. Going forward we will be generating stats using the rules as written in the 5e PH. This provides an arbitrary environment in which everyone knows what to expect and lets people play the character’s they want to play.

  

Dice Against Tyranny

Dragons, why did it have to be dragons!

It seems like my gaming drought has finally come to an end. Not only have I been playing a butt load of Magic, I now have a new D&D group! So far we are three sessions deep in the Tyranny of Dragons campaign. The group meets at my FLGS every two weeks. Thus far the table has fluctuated with the number of players and we’ve had anywhere from 3-5 players plus myself as the DM.

It was interesting how the group got started. Over the Christmas break one of the players sent out a message on the 3 Dragon’s (my game store) roleplaying Facebook page. He had bought the 5e D&D starter box and was looking for someone to run a game. I’ve been wanting to run a game for a while now and I had been hashing out ideas to do some sort of open table at the store so I jumped at the chance. Shortly after that another player threw in his hat and between us we recruited a few friends.

I struggled with what I should run. One of my friends who was joining us was also playing in two other 5e campaigns including Ravenloft and Princes of the Apocalypse, both of which were strong contenders for me to run. Finally, I settled on Tyranny of Dragons for one of the reasons it gets slammed in reviews, it’s railroad play. I felt that for new players less choice was a better starting point to learn the game. This would provide a better foundation to learn the rules and not feel overwhelmed or confused as to what to do. As it turns out the campaign has been a blast so far! The player’s have really played their characters well and despite the basic nature of the campaign it has been very exciting. The lesson I’ve taken away is that the investment by everyone at the table is what makes or breaks a campaign.

I may write up the session journals but I haven’t decided on that yet. I have neglected this blog for sometime now and I would really like to getting back to updating it again on a regular basis now that I have actual gaming to write about. I’m not a huge fan of game theory and would really rather write about actual play experiences. It has been a very exciting time for me and you haven’t heard the last from me by a long shot!