"Black Dougal gasps 'Poison!' and falls to the floor. He looks dead."

Sunday, July 26, 2009

B/X Skype Game Report

The first session of what looks to be a new B/X campaign was held over skype last night. I know I had a great time. The party consisted of:
- Ellos the Seer (player Mike D.) who has Sleep and Read Magic
- Sancho Peatfingers (Meepo) who is a 2nd level Halfling
- Diomedes, Adept of Bar'ralalaakk, the Toad Lord (JB)

The part began investigating an ancient dwarven stronghold hidden behind a waterfall in search of a rumoured powerful artifact.
They overcame a small tribe of kobolds, a swarm of centipedes that emerged from an old latrine and a giant spider that pounced on Diomedes.
They found 3,000 cp, 100 gp, a copper mask with clear crystals set for eye pieces, scrolls of Invisibility 10' radius and Dispel Magic and some clues about the history of the stronghold and the artifact.

Some comments/observations:
1. People - everyone got along really well. It was fun to play/BS with other people who knowledgeable and appreciate B/X.

2. Skype - we got a good connection and there were no drops.

3. Gametable - Once Mike D. got the thing working it complemented skype very well. I didn't have any pre-loaded maps and we didn't use it for 3.5 or 4E-style tactical combat but it was nice to have a quick and easy means to visually indicate room layouts and general positioning.

4. I am using the first part of the Doomstones campaign for WFRP as my starting premise. The general background and the dungeon map were taken from their and then I re-did it for B/X. The tone/style of Doomstones is easy to import into D&D as it was originally a D&D campaign that was converted to WFRP.

5. The party did not use a "caller". There was only 3 of them so there wasn't a lot of talking over each other on skype and it was pretty easy to come to a quick consensus.

6. I just parachuted the party to the dungeon entrance. This worked okay given the time constraints and the nature of the game. Eventually, I may have to flesh out a "home base".

7. It looks like the adventure will continue. Nothing concrete scheduled but there was a lot of talk about "next time".

8. There is room for a couple more players. If you are interested in participating send me an email at p_armstrong[at]email[dot]com.

Edit: 9. You can check out a blog I set up for the game at http://onlinebx.blogspot.com/ for some of the discussion.

10. I can see myself becoming a skype gaming junkie - anyone want to play Barbarians of Lemuria or Tunnels & Trolls?

6 comments:

  1. 2 & 3: That technology was solid. I think we were all a bit surprised and delighted by how well everything ran. Gametable added so much more to the game than I expected. I'm glad Mike got it working and we didn't just resort to something for dice rolling alone!

    6) It all begins with a tavern :)

    7) Hooray! Patrick said "campaign" and the phrases "continue" and "next time"! You're stuck with us now, buddy!

    8) Anyone interested in a fast moving, light-hearted and enjoyable game, seriously take him up on this offer. Even if you have no experience with Skype/Gametools or online playing at all. You will not be sorry!

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  2. Yes, I saw "campaign" there too! Aha! All hail the DM! :) Seriously that was fun last night.

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  3. Yep. What they said.

    One thing that was nice, was how FAST everything moved. Even feeling through the technology and knocking the rust off our D&D chops (I haven't PLAYED in an O/S game in more than 20 years!) we managed to pretty much clean out the dungeon in under three hours of game play.

    Well, all the dungeon we found, anyway...

    It would be very cool to add another couple folks to the mix. Pat did a fine job managing the game, and I think the skype/gametable could handle 5 + DM just fine.

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  4. This game idea is really picking up steam, and I am excited about it. My local group has pretty much fallen off the map and I need a good "regular" game again.

    The new blog was a great idea too Patrick, makes it easy to keep everyone involved.

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  5. Oh man, I was already waaaay interested in joining ya for the first session, but sadly the date/time didn't work out for me.

    Sounds like you guys had a blast. Very cool, and gratz on getting it together.

    Now, I'm totally jonesin'...AAARRRGGGH!!!!

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  6. @ Yoyo...wish you were there...could have used someone with a damn rope!

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