I've had a hankering to test out my sandbox for Dungeon Module B1: In Search of the Unknown. I enjoy coming up with these sandboxes for their own sake, but the intention has always been to actually run them.
Since the beginning of 2025, I've aspired to play more games more often with more players and to run these games with less effort. Specifically, I wanted to run games other than D&D, run more modules instead of original content, and run the same modules with multiple groups of players. Work smarter, not harder, more bang for my buck, and all that.
I've sort of done that. Instead of D&D, I've run Mörk Borg, but only Mörk Borg. I've only run published adventures in Mörk Borg, which is less work. But I've run only a few of those modules for multiple groups. I've played a lot more systems since making my resolution, and have played in those games with a wider variety of referees and players. So I have been running a game other than D&D and have been playing lots of games other than D&D. I've been spending less time prepping for the games I have run. For the most part, any effort I might normally put towards preparing for and running games has instead gone towards the blog
D&D always calls me back sooner or later, and with how much time I've spent writing about AD&D this past year plus my newfound interest in classic TSR modules, it only felt natural to try running one of these modules in the system that has always appealed to me as a nostalgic and quaint artifact of the hobby's history. So, I'm going to run a B/X module in a 1e sandbox using 2e rules. It should be fun. Why 2e? Well, I explained myself a bit here. This time, I'll be bringing along all my newfound knowledge of AD&D's intended vibe from my obsessive analysis of 1e.
The upside to running B1 is that the dungeon is done for me. The downside is that I can never make anything easy for myself, so of course I had to embed the dungeon within a sandbox filled with high level NPCs, strongholds, and monster lairs which all take a ton of additional work to detail. Fortunately, I'm almost done. Once it's finished, I can run this sandbox with as many different groups as I like.
I'm definitely patting myself on the back for making this sandbox very small. Even at just 25 hexes and nine keyed locations (one of which is already done for me, more or less - real B1-heads know), this has taken me weeks to prepare. It would be significantly more effort to do the same with my sandboxes for B2 or (especially) B3, which are two and three times as large, respectively. If this one goes well, though, we'll see...
I've recruited five players from the Prismatic Wasteland Discord server, and we'll play for about two hours any Wednesday on which we have a quorum of at least three players. I want this to be a casual drop in/drop out kind of game, so I wouldn't mind recruiting a few more just so players can skip sessions as needed without worrying that their absence will mean the game is cancelled for everyone else. Maybe as the campaign picks up speed, we'll draw in a few more by word of mouth.
I'm hoping to publish regular play reports as a way of not only recording the experience (which in hindsight I've found extremely beneficial for my last 2e campaign, short-lived though it was), but also as a means of boosting the campaign's signal. If I can make it sound fun, maybe more people will want to check it out.
Our cast of characters so far includes:
- Adam (playing Llombaerth, CG elf thief)
- Aidan (playing Millisant, LE human mage)
- David (playing Rory the Small, LN human fighter)
- Matt (playing Bathalo-gnome, CG gnome fighter/thief)
- Nael (playing Pommernar, CE elf mage)
What's this? No clerics? Evil characters? This seems like a disaster. How did this come to pass?
Well, my players are exceptionally game for discovering their characters via random character generation. We rolled randomly for ability scores (3d6 in order), race, height and weight, starting age and maximum age, alignment, starting spells for mages, and even handedness!
We don't have any clerics because only two players rolled a Wisdom of 9 or higher, and they wound up with 14 and 15 Strength respectively, so understandably they wanted to be fighters instead.
No one has an ability score higher than 15, and one character's highest score is 13. No one has any to hit or damage adjustments from Strength or hit point adjustments from Constitution, only one character has an AC adjustment from Dexterity, the most intelligent mage can only cast up to 7th level spells, and two characters receive penalties to saving throws versus mind-altering magic due to low Wisdom scores.
No one rolled good enough scores to be a paladin, ranger, specialist mage, druid, or bard - apt because these are meant to be exceedingly rare.
Regarding Evil characters, I explained that I don't mind if player characters are Evil, so long as they're not disruptive. AD&D strongly implies that characters have free reign to slaughter villages of peaceable elves, raid merchant caravans, and enslave intelligent giant beaver children. That's all solid gameable material rife with complications, and I wouldn't mind exploring it. There will be tension between the characters, and that's fine - alignment changes and lost levels are at stake, after all! As long as the Evil characters have goals which drive play and the players aren't Evil to one another, I'm comfortable with it. Being Evil is fun sometimes.
The players really enjoyed rolling for their starting and maximum ages. They learned that new human fighters are 16 to 19 years old, whereas mages are 26 to 40. It takes time to study to become a magic-user, and they're adventuring with people who are essentially children (every other human class besides illusionists start at 18 to 25 years old). They also learned that humans can live to be 130, whereas elves can live to be 750 years old. It's hard to imagine this ever coming up in play, especially in the course of exploring just a small sandbox, but it's fascinating nonetheless.
Lastly, spells. We have two mages in the group, Millisant and Pommernar. Both know read magic (they must, to be mages). In addition, Millisant knows charm person, detect magic, and protection from evil, while Pommernar knows burning hands, dancing lights, and erase, a spell that allows you to...erase two pages of writing! Okay it can also erase glyphs and explosive runes and the like, which could come in handy, but wow. Each of them can prepare and cast just one of these spells each day, then they are reduced to feebly wielding their daggers, darts, and slings.
One benefit of having two thieves in the party is that they can specialize. Llombaerth leans more towards sneaky stuff and skullduggery whereas Bartholo-gnome is specializing in finding and removing traps and opening locks. Since AD&D's thieves are relatively inept at their skills at early levels, this is beneficial to the party overall.
In the next few weeks I'm hoping to publish not just play reports with details regarding my behind the screen process, but also more general posts describing how to develop a sandbox beyond its initial conception. I've done some considerable work to bring this one to life since originally posting about it and am excited to describe what that's been like. I'm also hoping to eventually run this same sandbox with the group that played in my past 2e game, so hopefully there will eventually be two different series of play reports detailing two different groups' approaches to the same content.
I'm excited to play this game and see where it takes us.
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