On Random Encounters: Men

In a recent play report for my AD&D 2e campaign, I wrote about how the player characters keep having random encounters with merchants and tribesmen, and how I'm struggling to keep these encounters interesting on repeat occurrences. It got me thinking more broadly about how to make all types of random encounters with men more interesting.

I use the term "men" here because I've been using the AD&D 1e wilderness encounter tables from the DMG, which use the term "men" to refer to humans, which I interpret as genderless. One could interpret the term more broadly, treating a roll of "men" instead as "people", meaning that "men" could also mean demi-humans (dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings), and depending on the DM's setting and sensibilities, humanoids (gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, and orcs) as well.

I won't get into the weeds as to what is and isn't a "person" here, but suffice to say that I treat all of the above as people in my games, with personalities, goals, ideals, bonds, and flaws as mutable as any human being in our real world. However, the 1e encounter tables have separate entries for demi-humans and humanoids, which I prefer to keep intact, so for now I'll say that in writing about "men", I'm simply writing about humans. The rest of fantasy people-dom will have to wait for another time.

Men for Miles

Our campaign takes place in a temperate region, so I've been using the "Temperate and Sub-Tropical Conditions: Uninhabited/Wilderness Areas" encounter table:

The chances of encountering "men" is as low as 10% is forests (perhaps because there are so many other creatures which live in the forest) and as high as 25% in deserts (perhaps because relatively few other types of creatures live in the desert).

Because they are still low-level, my players have mostly stuck to settled regions near towns so far, so I've been using the "Inhabited And/Or Patrolled Areas" table even more often:

Encounters with "men" are understandably more common in these areas. In the desert, the chance of encountering "men" is as high as 77%!

Hopefully, this is enough to communicate the importance of making these encounters interesting and varied. They will come up often over the course of a campaign.

Persons of Interest

Aside from ordinary animals, humans are perhaps the least fantastic thing to be encountered in a fantasy world, and considering the way most people in the real world live today, encountering wildlife is probably actually more fantastic than encountering other people. However, encounters with humans should be anything but boring. 

Like any random encounter, every chance meeting with humans should present either an auspicious opportunity, a complication, or a threat. These encounters will usually provide an opportunity for social interaction, and occasionally will result in combat. They will sometimes offer a challenge for the players to overcome - a fight, a language barrier, or a tense negotiation, for example. Other times, they will provide information about the world - it's cultures, factions, history, locations of interest, monsters, religions, and treasures - or other valuable resources - directions, goods and services, intelligence about the players' current objective, or potential allies.

Recently, I found myself handwaving some of these encounters, and it occurred to me that I was doing this because I hadn't put enough consideration into how to make them enjoyable, which made them feel like they were not worth our playing time. Any encounter with any human can present any of the above opportunities, complications, or threats, but since I've been running into challenges with encounters with merchants and tribesmen specifically, I started thinking about what sorts of unique opportunities, complications, and threats are offered by each of the specific types of humans on 1e's "Men Subtable":

Below, I'll give my thoughts on each of the "Men Types" in the table above, what distinguishes them as a type, and what is likely to be the most "interesting" element about an encounter with them. Since I'm running a 2e game, I'll be starting by talking about each of the above "Men Types" in that edition, but supplementing that information with details from 1e (since it is more encyclopedic in nature), and occasionally referencing 5e (because it's the other variety of D&D I enjoy, although it's less thorough in its cataloging of "men").

What's this guy's deal?

Bandits

Criminals, gangsters, marauders, murderers, outlaws, pirates, and robbers - all of the above are "bandits" by another name. Just don't call them "brigands" - that is a very specific, different thing!

Bandits typically have a high-level leader. In 2e, this will usually be an 8th-level fighter. Lip service is paid towards them also possibly being led by a rogue, wizard, or priest (although no guidelines are given as to when this is the case). 

1e gives more thorough guidelines (as is usually the case) for generating bandit encounters, such as when they might be encountered with a wizard or priest, the type of lair they have (it is likely to be a camp, but might also be a cave complex with a secret entrance, or a castle), and how many "important prisoners", camp followers, and/or slaves they might have. 

In 2e, bandits are strictly Chaotic Evil. In 1e, they are Neutral by default. In 5e, they are any non-Lawful alignment. I like that in 5e, bandits are characterized by their non-Lawfulness - this allows for Chaotic Good Robinhood-inspired bands at best to murderous cutthroat psychopaths as worst. 

However, since I'm running 2e, my 2e bandits are always the latter type - they're characterized by their individualism and self-serving nature. They are the "So I kicked him in the head until he was dead, nyah-ha!" dirtbags of Baldur's Gate, whose gruesome scalps the player characters can gleefully turn over to the fascist Flaming Fist Officer Vai at the Jovial Juggler inn at Beregost - the Fist's bandit scalp budget is seemingly limitless.

This is important for me to consider, because I modify reaction rolls based on alignment. This means that my bandits have a -3 to their initial reaction rolls, meaning they will never be outright helpful, but might be friendly (2.78%) or indifferent (25%). They are far more likely to be unfriendly (30.56%) or outright hostile (41.67%). Your mileage may vary - it is undeniably more "interesting" to have bandits of variable alignment, but I've decided to work within the constraints of my chosen system, for now.

Hostile bandits will attack on sight. The party might be able to make a desperate effort to reason with some (33.33%), but others will persist regardless of the party's overtures (8.34%). Unfriendly bandits will likely attempt to extort, rob, or otherwise hinder the party. Indifferent bandits are most likely not the type to prey on well-armed adventurers, and will make efforts to conceal their true nature so as not to be meddled with by a bunch of do-gooders. Friendly bandits might recognize the party of dirty murderhobos as kindred spirits, or else they're simply putting on a front in order to gain an upper hand on the party at a later time.

So what's interesting about bandits? What sets one group apart from another, aside from their initial disposition? Based on the above information, I would say their leader, their lair, and their prisoners.

A group of bandits led by a fighter, a wizard, a cleric, or a thief should all be slightly different. Fighter-bandits are likely better armed and more disciplined in their tactics. They fight for fighting's sake. They're probably unemployed soldiers. Wizard-bandits will use spells and may be disgraced scholars or forbidden knowledge-seekers. Thief-bandits are in it for the gold and favor especially underhanded tactics. The party will have to watch out for backstabs.

Cleric-bandits - which are maybe the most interesting to me - will also use spells (of a different kind) and have a religious motivation of some kind. They are probably excommunicated or heretical in some way. Determining their deity of choice will be important to discerning their motivations. Looking at the generic Chaotic Evil Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk deities (which I tend to use in my games, since I'm somewhat lazy in this regard and because they feel very "D&D"), we have Beshaba, Goddess of Misfortune, Cyric, God of Lies, Iuz, God of Pain and Oppression, Malar, God of the Hunt, Talona, Goddess of Poison and Disease, Talos, God of Storms, Tharizdun, God of Madness and Eternal Darkness, and Umberlee, Goddess of the Sea.

The cleric-bandits' choice of deity may further inform their tactics, personalities, goals, ideals, bonds, and flaws. Depending on their deity, they may be more likely to deceive, drown, enslave, inconvenience, poison, stalk, or torture their victims. None of this is fun stuff, but it is potentially more interesting than just "they want to kill and/or rob people".

I would quickly give the bandits' leader a name and some personality traits, goals, ideals, bonds, and flaws - regardless of the edition I'm playing, I would probably use the tables from 5e's Criminal background (PHB, page 129), or another appropriate background depending on the leader type, and/or the tables from that edition's DMG's chapter on creating NPCs (page 88).

The bandits' lair is also a key piece of information - it's type says something about them. In settled regions, a camp or fortress overrun with bandits is likely widely known - the kind of thing the DM should place ahead of time and make the players aware of. It will be a problem for nearby settlements, and the bandits will likely be in conflict - or cahoots - with the nearest settlement's rulers. 

Randomly encountered bandits could be from a known encampment nearby - if one exists - otherwise, it's probably safe to assume that the lair is in some out of the way or secret place (a cave, for example, could be a hidden bandit lair inside otherwise inhabited lands). Bandits who maintain a known lair in settled lands are likely more formidable, compared to those who hide in hidden caves or in the wilderness.

In wilderness areas, camps and caves will be in secret locations. Fortresses are unlikely to be secret, unless its an ancient place, the location of which has been lost to time. Hidden bandit lairs of all kinds will be a closely guarded secret which player characters can potentially learn from talkative, friendly, or captive bandits. 

Cave lairs and fortress dungeons might have monsters dwelling deep within them, and ancient fortresses will usually have histories baked into them, which player characters can also learn about from their denizens. These two locations could serve as proper adventure sites even after the inhabiting bandits are driven off or killed, or perhaps the bandits are so friendly because there's a problem at the lair which the player characters could help resolve - again, a monster inhabiting the lair's depths, or a heavily guarded treasure in the fortress's vault. Of course, if the bandits are Chaotic Evil, they'll probably double-cross the characters as soon as the dirty work is done.

Lastly, the bandits' "important prisoners" and slaves are worth consideration. What constitutes an important prisoner? I would hazard to guess that they're mostly merchants and nobles - namely, people that can be ransomed - but this can also be determined by the bandit type: fighter-bandits might have prisoners of war, wizard-bandits might have sages and scholars, cleric-bandits might have rival prophets and missionaries, and thief-bandits might have rival assassins, bandits, thieves, and masters of Thieves' Guilds. 

Knowledge of prisoners like these can also generate impromptu quest hooks - a chance encounter with some friendly bandits reveals that they recently captured a wandering missionary; now, the player characters have to convince the bandits to divulge the location of their hideout, go there, and find a way to rescue the prisoner so that the local church owes them a favor or a reward.

Would you look at that foot...

Berserkers

In 2e, the berserker's main distinguishing feature is that they drive themselves into a frenzy in battle. When frenzied, they attack twice per round, or once at +2 to hit, and they never make morale checks.

This is true in 1e as well, and in that edition they are also led by high-level fighters, and maybe a cleric.

There is no mention of a lair, though in 1e there is a 10% chance of encountering them there, so presumably they exist. I imagine that they're fortified encampments.

In both editions, berserkers are Neutral. In 5e, their alignment is any Chaotic alignment. As with bandits, I'll be using the berserker's 2e alignment of Neutral. This means that the full spectrum of dispositions is possible, with indifferent being the most likely (44.45%), outright helpful or hostile being least likely (8.34% each), and friendly or unfriendly in between (19.44% each).

Hostile berserkers attack in a frenzy. An encounter with unfriendly berserkers might mean dealing with berserkers on the brink of a frenzied attack. Helpful berserkers may join the party on whatever their current quest is, while friendly berserkers may share information or hospitality, or want to engage in an amicable skirmish with the party's strongest warriors. Indifferent berserkers likely want nothing to do with the party, but could be convinced to do something or be plied for information. I use 5e's Outlander background (PHB, page 136) to flesh out their leaders.

If the berserkers are accompanied or led by a cleric, their religion could color the interaction, as with bandits. Looking at our Neutral Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk deities, we have Gond, the God of Craft, Ioun, Goddess of Knowledge, Oghma, also God of Knowledge, Waukeen, Goddess of Trade - none of which I feel work particularly well for berserkers - as well as Kossuth, God of Fire, Silvanus, God of Wild Nature, and Tempus, God of War.

Given their Neutral alignment, I would also argue that it would be just as appropriate for berserkers to be led by a druid, given druids' required Neutral alignment in 2e. In that case, the berserkers would likely worship natural spirits of animals or the land, rather than following an organized religion. 

Berserker's in our own world's history are typically grouped into either the cult of the bear, boar, or wolf - 5e's Totem Warrior barbarian subclass can provide some inspiration as to what traits a berserker cult of a given animal might embody. Or, maybe D&D's berserkers instead worship a gorgon, griffon, roc, or other Neutral or unaligned animal-adjacent monster, and assume the mannerisms of that creature.

In addition to the usual information that human NPCs will have about the region or world, berserkers will have specific knowledge - namely, the knowledge of how to enter a frenzy. Some theories about real-life berserkers suggest that they achieved this state by consuming alcohol or hallucinogenic drugs. This secret is something the berserkers might share if the party convinces them, helps them, or agrees to be initiated into the tribe or warband.

Brigands

Who am I kidding - these are just bandits! Well, not exactly. In 2e, they are "better equipped and will have higher morale". In 1e, they are specifically Chaotic Evil bandits (remember that regular bandits in 1e are Neutral), they are more likely to lair in caves and fortresses, they have half as many important prisoners, something like three times as many camp followers and/or slaves, and they have +1 morale.

Otherwise, they're just bandits. Go reread what I wrote about bandits, but mentally replace the word "bandits" with "brigands". Or don't.

Characters

Otherwise known as "Adventurers", they will have classes and levels and can be as varied as any group of player characters. 1e and 2e both have their own guidelines for generating parties of adventurers, including hirelings and henchmen, which I won't get into here. What I will say is that both procedures are thorough, so my recommendation is to generate some adventuring parties ahead of time and have them ready in the event that the player characters encounter them.

My preference is to generate one party of each "tier" - low-level, medium-level, high-level, and very high-level. Maybe a "Good" party and an "Evil" party of each tier, for variety. Give them a cheeky name - something that will get a laugh and make the players seriously consider giving their own party a silly name.

These are some of my favorite encounters to roleplay. Good adventurers might lend their aid to the party, going so far as to join them on their current quest or otherwise collaborate, or oppose them if the player character party happens to be evil. My players recently encountered a party of very high-level adventurers purely by chance. We all had a lovely time riffing on the situation, with the NPC party offering helpful tips and encouragement, and resolving to clean up a potentially region-altering mess the player characters had made.

Doing that once is fine - if the players make friendly contact with a higher-level party of Good adventurers and want to lean on them all the time to resolve problems they're incapable of facing themselves, shut it down immediately. Even Good adventurers are as capricious, distractible, and fickle as actual player characters. Whenever the players go looking for them, say, to remove the Evil wizard lording over the nearby town, tell them that the high-level party is off doing high-level adventurer stuff - they're plane shifted to Hades, battling the Bone Lord in the Bone Castle, or something. The players have to overcome (most) challenges themselves!

Evil adventurers should be the worst of the worst dirtbags the DM can imagine - draw on any experiences with problem players and adolescent gaming to make them absolutely detestable. Taunt the player characters or lay a diabolical ambush. Use the most OP, social contract-shattering spells available - the ones Redditors complain about. The players will hate these guys more than any xenophobic beholder, pyromaniac dragon, or megalomaniacal lich. My last 5e campaign was derailed for months by the player characters relentlessly pursuing a treacherous NPC party, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The catharsis the players will experience when they finally get their hands on these people is unlike anything else in the game.

Even Good NPC parties can be unlikeable. Have everyone everywhere talk about how great they are all the time. Have them buy all the good magic items at the Bazaar of the Bizarre. Have them rule all of the sweet castles the player characters wish they had, or recruit all of the men-at-arms the fighter needs to man their stronghold. When the player characters show up in town after completing a quest, no one notices because the Big Damn Heroes just saved the multiverse or whatever. Nobody likes Mr. Perfect.

It's not difficult to make these encounters interesting, if the characters are fleshed out ahead of time. I never get to play in a game - at least not for long - so I treat this as my opportunity to create bespoke characters with detailed backstories and motivations. They are all my OCs, and the NPCs in the setting are as obsessed with them as I am, and it is as annoying and obnoxious as players who create characters like that (only kidding - kinda).

Returning to Baldur's Gate, I think about every fight with adventurers in those games. In the second game, right at the beginning, on the second floor of an inn is a party of adventurers who pick a fight with the player character. They're obnoxious and they have good loot, and the fight is pretty challenging because the NPCs have all the same tricks as the player character party. That's the purpose of NPC parties in D&D. That's what I want these encounters to feel like.

Dervishes

The dervish is a Arab-coded religious nomad. In real-world history, they were Muslim mendicants. In D&D, they're roaming desert warriors of a non-specific religious persuasion. They're Lawful Good and led by clerics, with high-level fighters and wizards among them as well. They live in walled fortresses are are fanatics, adding 1 to their attack and damage, and never checking morale. I use 5e's Acolyte background (PHB, page 127) to give their leaders personality traits and the like.

As far as making them interesting goes, it mostly boils down to religion, to a much greater extent than those other "Men Types" discussed up to this point. Again referring to our generic D&D deities, Lawful Good options include Ilmater, God of Endurance, Torm, God of Courage and Self-Sacrifice, and Tyr, God of Justice. Dervishes might be martyrs, valorous warriors, or good-doers and wrong-righters. They can serve as a means to deliver information to the players about the world's religious practices.

Because of their alignment, they will never be outright hostile, and have a small chance of being unfriendly (2.78%). They might be indifferent (25%), but will likely be friendly (30.56%), and especially helpful (41.67%).

Dervishes are also characterized by the terrain they inhabit. There is an especially good chance of encountering dervishes in the desert. In desert wilderness regions, they are the most common type of men. They might join the party to escort them across an otherwise inhospitable wasteland, or invite them back to their desert fortress to rest in safety and restock on provisions. 

Like bandits with their lairs in settled lands, these fortresses should probably already be on the map somewhere, and be known to the player characters - I'm thinking about where to put mine right now! They should be destinations for player characters that need to venture across long stretches of desert. I imagine that these fortresses are like the kasbahs of Morocco and Spain.

Merchants

Merchants are the main reason I started writing this post. They are the most common type of men encountered in all inhabited terrain types, as well as in wilderness plains, scrubs, rough terrain, and hills, so it's especially important to consider how they can be interesting.

In 2e, merchants travel in heavily-armed caravans. Only 10% of those encountered are actual merchants. 10% are drovers, and the rest are armed guards, led by a 6th- to 11th-level fighter, with lower-level fighters thrown in as well. There is also a chance of medium- to high-level wizards, priests, and thieves in the caravan. The caravan has pack animals and wagons carrying trade goods, with 5,000 gp of goods per wagon, although there is no method for determining the total value of goods carried.

1e, again, is more specific - the caravan will carry a hidden pay chest containing gold, platinum, and gems, and the caravan will carry between 10,000 and 60,000 gold worth of merchandise. This information, combined with the huge number of armed guards and the fact that merchants "will always be mounted on very swift, light horses", has made me realize what's interesting about the wandering merchant encounter - the players are supposed to decide whether or not to rob them.

The player characters, coming upon a caravan of merchants, can take stock of the number of pack animals and wagons, estimate the value of trade goods carried, measure this against the threat posed by the armed guards and "special" characters in the party, and choose whether to knock over the caravan for a huge payout. Can they stop the merchants on their swift horses before they escape and notify the local authorities?

Personally, I love this idea, but I love ruthless, mercenary adventurers - my players are usually goody-goodies, and I can't see them ever actually doing this. So then what purpose does the wandering merchant serve?

Well, they can buy and sell things. It's an opportunity for the player characters to unload any weighty treasure and restock on supplies. In wilderness areas, this might be an auspicious encounter indeed, but in settled regions, it doesn't make much sense. The characters are likely traveling from town to town - if they need to buy or sell something, they can simply do it in the next town, which likely isn't far, or, they already did it on their last stop.

So, the wandering merchant has to present some opportunity or threat that isn't present in the normal course of in-town shopping expeditions. I immediately think about magic items. I go back and forth on whether or not they should be available to purchase. If magic items aren't widely available to purchase in settlements, perhaps an auspicious encounter with a wandering merchant presents a rare opportunity to buy them. 

I lean towards allowing my players to purchase magic items in major towns and cities, because that's what my players want, and I'm somewhat indifferent towards the idea. So in my case, wandering merchants need to present some unique opportunity to purchase these items, or else, again, why wouldn't the players wait until they reach the next town to do so?

My inclination is to say that wandering magic item merchants offer items at a discount. Let's say merchants encountered carry 1d4 (65%), 2d4 (20%), 3d4 (10%), or 4d4 items (5%). They might be specialty merchants carrying a specific type of item, or hodgepodge collectors with a varied trove of trinkets and curios. In either case, I'd roll on the magic item tables to see what exactly they've got. Like with NPC adventuring parties, I'd prep a merchant of each type in advance to save time at the table, using 5e's Charlatan or Merchant background (PHB, pages 128 and 133, respectively) to detail their personalities. Whenever the PCs encounter a given merchant, I'd go into my notes after the session and refresh their list of items.

I'm not sure how I'd like to determine the exact discount on offer. A reaction roll is a good way to do it, but what should be the spread? 5% for a hostile encounter, up to 25% for a helpful one? I'm more inclined to roleplay this encounter than a typical shopping expedition - which, as a rule, we never play out. So, whatever the exact rate is, it should be negotiable, based on the merchant's disposition. 

Merchants in 2e can be any alignment. In 1e, they're always Neutral. Either way, the full spectrum of reactions is possible. 2e's variable alignment allows me to more easily add color to the merchants. Chaotic Evil and Neutral Evil merchants probably deal in cursed items exclusively, pawning them off as the real thing and then absconding with their ill-gotten gains. Lawful Evil merchants are probably the real deal, but are sticklers when it comes to prices. Good-aligned merchants will only sell to do-gooders. Neutral merchants will sell to anyone.

This approach ensures that wandering merchants always present both opportunities and threats in equal measure, which is important to me in thinking about these encounters. I would keep intact the wagons laden with trade goods as well, in case the players do decide to turn to banditry.

Nomads

In 2e, nomads are looped in with barbarians, and in 1e, they're filed under dervishes. Go figure.

The defining characteristic of nomads is that they're travelers, which makes them perfect for random encounters. For some reason, in 1e there is a 10% chance that their lair is a walled city (how nomadic!), but otherwise, they lair in temporary encampments. They are led by high-level fighters and occasionally have clerics and wizards among them. Like with berserkers, I'd detail their leaders' personalities using 5e's Outlander background. 

Nomads keep herd animals and slaves, which is a problem, because in 2e they can be of any alignment (in 1e, they're Neutral). I would rule that Good nomads don't have slaves, because slavery is Evil.

If nomads attack the party, they have a good chance of surprising them (a 4-in-6 chance in 1e, or -5 to the party's surprise check in 2e, with a 1, 2, or 3 on 1d10 indicating surprise). That and the special characters with them is what makes a combat encounter with nomads interesting.

If combat isn't inevitable, the nomads pose a secondary threat of imprisoning the party (1e specifies that they have a 75% chance of capturing weaker groups). If the nomads are indifferent, friendly, or helpful, they present the opportunity to obtain information. 

Nomads get around, so they should have a wealth of knowledge about the surrounding area in which they're encountered- they're probably more knowledgeable about the environs than anyone else. They know where the monsters and locations of interest are, where to find food and water, and how to get places. A nomad guide, if one can be recruited, is the best guide there is.

Pilgrims

Pilgrims are on a pilgrimage - that is, they are going somewhere (or maybe returning from somewhere). They're religious. What's interesting about them is their religion, and where they're going (or returning from). They are an opportunity for player characters to learn about a local religion as well as a religious location of interest.

There is a specific table provided to determine the alignment of pilgrims (oddly, because no such table is provided for any other type of men with variable alignment):

d100     Alignment
01-35    Lawful good
36-55    Chaotic good
56-65    Neutral
66-85    Lawful evil
86-00    Chaotic evil

Apparently, there are no Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Neutral, Neutral Evil, or Neutral Good pilgrims. Who knew?

Pilgrims will be led by a medium- to high-level priest, and accompanied by low- to high-level fighters, wizards, and thieves. Fighters accompanying Lawful Good pilgrims will be paladins, those with Chaotic Good pilgrims will be rangers, priests will Neutral pilgrims will be druids, and Lawful Evil pilgrims will be berserkers. I would probably use the 5e Acolyte background for the leader's personality.

Perhaps most interesting is that the pilgrims' priestly leader has a 5% chance of carrying a closely-guarded religious artifact. This is probably meant to be a religious artifact in the historical sense - a saint's bones or some such - but there's no reason why it couldn't also be a priest- or paladin-specific magic item of great power, like a rod of resurrection or a holy avenger sword. I'm tempted to juice that number a bit, or say that an artifact is always present, simply because the presence of an artifact is the most interesting possibility to me. 

Tribesmen

Tribesmen are the other reason (in addition to merchants) that I started writing this post. In wilderness areas, they are the most common type of men encountered in forests, mountains, and marshes. After 10 sessions of our 2e game, the party has encountered four different groups of tribesmen (they spent a lot of time in forests and some time in the mountains, so this makes sense).

I'll be honest in that I don't really see the difference between tribesmen and nomads, except that tribesmen are probably intended to be more "primitive". In 1e, they're lumped in with "cavemen", which seems...problematic. Combined with the fact that they are "typically found in tropical jungles or on islands", led by "witchdoctors", and that they have a 50% chance of keeping captives, which the 1e Monster Manual, uh, gleefully describes with a parenthetical "food!" and uh, yeah, I'm going to stay away from this one.

Tribesmen are just people who live in tribes. They're no better or worse, or more "primitive" or "savage" than other people. They're led by fighters and druids, probably Outlanders in 5e terms. Like nomads, they know a great deal about the lands in which they dwell. They can be formidable enemies as well as helpful guides and knowledgeable contacts.

Let's just leave it at that.

Culture and Conclusions

Obviously, categorizing types of people in this way, sometimes based on real historical cultures, and painting them in broad, trope-ified brush strokes for a fantasy game written in the 70s by a midwestern American man brings with it some baggage. The 1e description of tribesmen is particularly revolting to a modern reader, and the inclusion of other culturally-specific people like dervishes and even berserkers may be uncomfortable to some, but one could say the same about bards, druids, monks, and paladins, all of which are D&D-isms that are close to my heart.

Ultimately, we're playing a game, and a mostly private, individual game, at that, and tropes are often somewhat helpful as a way of categorizing and understanding things. In some cases, as with 1e's tribesmen, the trope is so repulsive as to be completely unsalvageable. At other times, as with berserkers and dervishes, in my opinion, it's worth doing my best to simply think critically about how I use the trope, and consider how to make it interesting and nuanced. Certainly, if I think something will offend my players or make them uncomfortable, I steer clear of it.

I hope that this has been somewhat enlightening. I certainly didn't mean to write all that, but I feel that engaging in the process of considering the role of different types of people in the game has helped me figure out how I want to use them. Hopefully, it will make their implementation more satisfying in play. The next time the player characters encounter some merchants, I feel more confident that I'll know what makes interacting with them worthwhile.

And hopefully, someday, my players will see a caravan laden with loot, do the math, and decide to become highwaymen after all.

AD&D 2e Play Report: Session 11

Last night, we played the 11th session of our AD&D 2e campaign. The play report for our last session is here.

To recap briefly, the party went on a long journey from the city of Southreach to the muddy halfling town of Grimerun in the north. On the way, they encountered a large band of orcs and had to hide in a field of crops until they passed.

Grimerun was being terrorized by a mysterious forest beast which was gobbling up the village's residents. The party met with Jakayla, a local ranger, who took them to the site of the last attack. They found a 30-foot-deep burrow in the earth leading to a series of tunnels. Hesitant to go skulking around down there, the party laid a trap to draw the beast out.

Eventually, the beast took the bait - an 11-foot-long ankheg emerged from the pit. The party sprung the trap, with great success. They hoisted the beast into the air with a giant mancatcher and slew it as it thrashed about. Because the ankheg was relatively small, the party concluded that there must be more where that came from. 

They tried the trap again the next day, with less success. The trap failed, and the ankheg escaped. The party decided they needed more manpower, and promised to return to Grimerun to solve the problem once they had recruited some henchmen. They headed south to the town of Stormhelm to do so.

*Slaps the Top of My 17 Charisma* You Can Fit So Many Henchmen in this Bad Boy

The party spent an evening in Stormhelm and asked around about who might be willing to join a bug-hunting expedition. Haymond Baler met Yuliana, a local cleric of Chauntea, the Goddess of Agriculture. Having been a farmer himself, Haymond liked the cut of her jib, and recruited her. With his 17 Charisma, he can take on 9 more henchmen, should he so choose.

The party traveled another day south to Grasshold, the larger town. There, Ash met Derrell, a druid, which the party took as an auspicious occasion. I use the 2e Monstrous Manual's Character Subtable in Appendix III: NPCs (page 379) to determine demographics, which lists only a 3% chance of encountering a druid. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, Ash recruited the druid. With 11 Charisma, Ash can have three more henchmen.

Each of the players has a henchman now - Bernhardt Dalton has the elf fighter, Yinvalur Sparkguard, and Karven Stone has the human thief, Sheyla. Their party now numbers eight, and the ranger, Jakayla, was waiting for them back in Grimerun. They estimated that they now had enough numbers to brave the ankhegs' den. They turned back to the north to return to Grimerun.

Filling Out the Party

On their way out of Stormhelm, the party encountered a mounted patrol from town. The party expressed their intent to solve Grimerun's monster problem. The patrol wished them luck, and bid them to also deal with the village's nasty hobgoblin problem while they were at it, then return back to Grasshold to root out the ogres lairing nearby. You know, just reminding the players of all the other stuff they have to do.

The party completed the day-and-a-half journey back to Grimerun without further incident. They reunited with Jakayla, and paid two halfling bounders, Panster Keenblossom and Sylyra Softleaf, to watch their mules, dogs, and supplies while they went exploring the tunnels. 

The halflings are hirelings, so the party pays by the day, and estimated they would need three days' of work from them - one day of travel to the burrow, one day exploring inside, and one day of travel back to the village.

The party was now traveling with eleven members, two mules, and three dogs - now we're playing AD&D! They set out for the burrow. The journey took seven hours, so they had an extra hour to poke around inside the hole. They lowered a rope and rappelled down.

The tunnels were more expansive than they could have imagined, but Jakayla was able to pick up a trail, which she believed she could follow directly to the ankhegs' nest. After a half hour of scouting, they turned back to climb up out of the hole and rest topside.

Ambushers

In the middle of the night, Bernhardt heard a pair of large figures, speaking to each other in Ogrish - and they were heading directly towards the party's camp! 

I rolled that the ogres would be surprised, so I let Bernhardt's player know that they seemed unaware of the party's presence. Bernhardt, Jakayla, and Yinvalur were awake, so they quickly roused the rest of the group, who scattered into the surrounding foliage, intent on ambushing the ogres.

The ogres stumbled into the middle of the camp, surprised to find it there. They said something to each other in Ogrish, which the party couldn't understand. Without hesitating, they launched the ambush. 

Ash and Haymond targeted the smaller of the two, bringing it down with two swift strikes (their two attacks did a combined 24 damage). The remaining ogre was riddled with arrows, darts, and sling bullets from Bernhardt, Karven, Sheyla, Yinvalur, Yuliana, and the halflings, before Jakayla leapt forward and felled it with her longsword.

It was a perfect surprise attack. The players remarked that maybe they could handle that ogre den in Grasshold after all!

Ambushed

The next morning, the party left their halfling bounders and descended back into the tunnels. As they followed the trail Jakayla had picked up, the forest above them thickened. Twisting roots grew down through the tunnel's ceiling and out of the walls, forcing the party to scramble through them, slowing them down. They traversed the tunnels for a full eight hours, covering about seven-and-a-half miles during that time. If the tunnels extended out in a 12-mile radius, as Jakayla suspected, then they were a little over halfway there.

The party would have to rest inside the tunnels, and continue in the morning. They nestled themselves in amongst the roots as comfortably as possible and did their best to nod off.

Haymond and Yuliana were on watch when Haymond heard the sound of tiny creatures scrambling in the dark. Suddenly, the two were beset by at least a dozen tiny, flabby, long-limbed humanoid creatures. 

The gremlins impose a -5 penalty to their opponents' surprise rolls, so the party were now the ones being ambushed. I rolled a 3 for their reaction, so they were hostile - whether they would kill the party or take them prisoner was anyone's guess.

The gremlins launched themselves at Haymond and Yuliana, shrieking a hodgepodge language of Common, Dwarvish, Gnomish, Goblin, and Orcish. They clung to the characters' bodies as they tried to bludgeon them unconscious with tiny clubs.

Yuliana was almost killed in the initial onslaught, and Haymond lost nearly half of his hit points. The shrieking woke the rest of the party, who hastily drew their weapons and joined the melee. 

Ash, Haymond, Jakayla, Sheyla, and Yinvalur began frantically slashing and stabbing at anything within reach. Bernhardt began firing off hold persons, and managed to paralyze a few of the enemies. Karven drew a few of the gremlins off of Yuliana and began tumbling to avoid attacks from the horde. Derrell cast shillelagh and started clubbing the gremlins. Yuliana attempted to escape certain death with sanctuary, but her casting was interrupted when she was clubbed some more.

At this point, at least one of the gremlins had been killed, and others were below half hit points, so they needed to start making morale checks. Since they hadn't yet killed or subdued any of the party, and because they were now facing magic-using foes, the gremlins had -4 to their morale checks, or -8 if they were badly wounded (because morale is rolled on 2d10 and the gremlins have a morale score of 12, a -8 penalty meant they would automatically flee). 

The gremlins began to lose morale, scrambling to escape into unseen passages in the tunnel walls. The party attempted to kill them as they fled. Once they were outnumbered 3-to-1 (i.e. three or fewer gremlins left, since the party numbered nine), their morale check penalties worsened to -12, not that it made a difference. In the end, the party killed twelve of the gremlins, while just two escaped.

Haymond and Yuliana were the only ones wounded, and that was mostly in the initial surprise attack. Bernhardt used his healing magic to restore them to full hit points.

This was a combat that looked very dicey at first, then quickly turned into a chaotic melee which tilted in the party's favor. I was very satisfied with the morale rules here. They kept the fight from degenerating into a boring slog (not counting the initial ambush, it lasted just two rounds), and it felt somewhat realistic that the tiny, evil creatures would lose heart quickly once the surprise attack turned against them.

After the fight, we concluded for the evening. The party gained experience for the ambush on the ogres and the ambush by the gremlins, but no one leveled up. They all need at least a thousand XP for their next level (Bernhardt needs something like 6,000 XP), and they are getting just a small fraction of that number each session, so I suspect that they'll be here for a while.

Next time, the bug hunt continues.

AD&D 2e Play Report: Session 10

This week, we played the 10th session of our ongoing AD&D 2e campaign. The play report for our last session is here.

To recap, the party scouted out the Wolfkin Tribe camp to determine how best to stop them from raiding local lumber mills. They listened in on a conversation between the tribe chieftain and druid, and determined that there was a divide between the two of them. The party slashed their way into the chieftain's tent, and with a fortunate casting of hold person and some unexpected help from the druid, slew the chieftain easily.

The druid, Feli, told them that the tribe was raiding mills due to a breached agreement with the town of Houndrun. Now that the offending mill had been razed, Feli was seeking peace. He asked that the party negotiate with the town on the tribe's behalf. He also suggested that it would be best to eliminate one of the subchiefs, Noa, who was likely to follow in the chieftain's vengeful footsteps. This would allow Feli to install a new chieftain who he could shape into a more neutral figurehead.

The party agreed. Karven Stone snuck into Noa's tent at night and killed him, and the party crept off into the woods before daybreak. They avoided some giant battling beetles on their way back to town, convinced the lumber company in Houndrun to let the razed lumber mill remain pillaged, and proceeded to collect some rumors about other jobs in the region. They learned about hobgoblins kidnapping villagers near Grimerun, where they already had a forest beast to hunt, so they decided to go there next.

The Long Road (Again)

The party traveled from Houndrun to Southreach in a day without incident. In the city, they briefly stopped in at the Gladiators of Patience's guildhall. The Gladiators were not present (I had decided that they plane shifted to the Bone Lord's Bone Castle in the Gray Wastes to do battle with Him there - I like the idea that the very high-level adventurers are always off doing very high-level shenanigans whenever the party goes looking for them). 

The party left a message for them about Lord Montaigu, the evil wizard lording over the town of Mythshire - as if they didn't know about it already! - in case the Gladiators would want to do something about it. I don't want to set a precedent where all of the big threats and antagonistic powers in the region are taken care of by NPCs before the party ever reaches the higher levels, so I plan to come up with some rigamarole about how the Gladiators don't get involved in politics, or how dealing with an evil wizard lording over a town is some 5th-level adventurer tedium with which they won't sully their hands.

The party traveled another day to Mythshire without incident - no evil adventurers in sight this time, and no indication as to what Lord Montaigu is doing with his newly-acquired pegasus eggs. They continued north on the long road back to Spiritbrook, a three-and-a-half-day journey.

Traveling Merchants (Again)

Along the way, the party had a random encounter with some merchants, again. In an earlier session, the party had encountered some crab merchants, and last session, I thought it'd be funny if they encountered them again. I suppose I could just totally run the joke into the ground at this point, but that wasn't my inclination here. Instead I said "You know, they're merchants. They've got stuff. Anyone wanna buy anything?"

Which of course they didn't. They just came from two towns and a city. If they wanted to buy something, they would have done it in one of those places. Not my proudest moment. I guess I was disappointed at getting this result again and just wanted to move on, which is either a sign that I should have rerolled (sometimes rolling dice is a good way to find out what I actually want to happen), or that I need to think about how to make these encounters more interesting.

A random encounter with merchants should be like any other random encounter - an auspicious opportunity or a potential setback or threat. It could be a chance to buy something the party otherwise might not be able to procure - namely, I'm thinking about magic items, probably at a reduced cost, since the players are always complaining about how expensive they are.

One option would be for every traveling merchant to be an emissary from the Bazaar of the Bizarre - a very video game-y, extradimensional space where magic items of all kinds can be procured. Another option would be for there to be some variability between merchants, which I prefer - these merchants are selling potions, these ones have scrolls, arms and armor, rings, miscellaneous magic, etc. That would be easy enough to determine using the magic item tables.

Another option for more diversity would be to randomly generate 1d4, 1d6, 1d8 items, or something like that. A given merchant might have five items - two potions, a sword, a stave, and a magic book, for example. That might take more time to generate at the table, but could be more interesting.

I could also take the merchants' alignment into account - Lawful Good merchants will only sell to people they view as upstanding citizens, Neutral merchants will sell to anyone, and Chaotic Evil merchants only sell cursed or bogus items and then run off with their ill-gotten gold. This would also let me leverage alignment-based reaction rolls to set prices - the better the reaction, the better the discount, maybe. Something to think about, and likely a topic for a future post.

30 Orcs

The party reached Spiritbrook without further incident and continued onto Grasshold. Halfway there, as they were setting camp, they spotted a band of 30 orcs roving across the farmland. One of the things I love about AD&D is that encounters like this are not only possible, but highly likely. Not knowing the orcs' intentions, the party looked to hide. 

Haymond Baler's player asked what kind of crops were growing around here. Uh, I totally know the answer to that. Why did he ask? He was wondering if the party could hide in there. Great! Always ask the players' intentions. It gives more time to think and make a satisfying ruling. I rolled a d100 and got a 98, so the party was in luck - the local crop provided 90% concealment! They broke camp quickly and took cover.

I rolled another d100 and got less than 90, so the orcs passed by without noticing the party. The orcs were rabbling in Orcish, which no one in the party speaks, so they were unable to discern what the orcs were going on about. They had come from the direction of the ogre den near Grasshold, so maybe it had something to do with that.

I had actually determined that the orcs were friendly (I got a reaction roll of 10), but I hadn't the faintest idea as to what they might want from the party or what they were doing there, so I was somewhat relieved that the players chose to avoid them.

Concerning Hobbits

The party proceeded through Grasshold, the largest of the towns in the area (which will become relevant later), and then Stormhelm, eventually making their way to Grimerun without incident (it was three days of travel from the orc encounter to Grimerun). 

Grimerun is a small village primarily consisting of halflings. It's located where two rivers intersect, on the edge of a small pond which is in turn on the edge of a huge swamp. It's muddy due to frequent flooding and there are a lot of bugs. This is the first time the party has been to a smaller village, so I felt it important to make those distinctions.

The party stayed at a local flophouse, the Full Lady. The painted sign depicts a halfling woman full to bursting, which I suggested seemed like some sort of fetish the proprietor had. The party talked to some of the locals about the forest beast which had been terrorizing the town, and it was suggested that they talk to Jakayla, a hunter who lived in a lodge in the forest outside the village.

The next morning, the party visited Jakayla, a middle-aged human ranger, who offered to take them to the most recent location where the beast had attacked. Along the way, they encountered some forest people.

This is the fourth group of "tribesmen" the party has encountered during the campaign. Like with the traveling merchants, it seems inevitable that this encounter will come up time and time again, so I'm trying to think of ways it can be interesting rather than simply potentially "problematic". I don't have any ideas yet.

The tribesmen were friendly, and Jakayla was familiar with them, so the party asked if they knew anything about the forest beast. I got a reaction of indifferent, so I decided that they preferred not to say - they were superstitious, and viewed the beast as a demon of some kind which it was better not to speak aloud of. The party accepted this and went on their way.

Luring the Beast

The party arrived at the site of the most recent beast attack - a ten-foot-wide, thirty-foot-deep pit in the earth. Jakayla told them that similar pits were present at the other attack sites. I asked the players to make Wisdom checks, and they all succeeded. They detected an aroma of rotting fruit from within. I asked Haymond's player to make an Intelligence check with a bonus of +4, which he failed. The scent did not bring anything to mind.

Based on the location of the attacks, Jakayla suggested that the beast hunted in a 12-mile radius. The party was not enthused about climbing down into a hole and skulking about in those tunnels.

Instead, they started devising a trap for the beast. Could they climb down into the tunnel, start a fire, and try smoking it out? Probably not, because the tunnel system would have to be huge. If anything, that would only keep the beast away from them. Could they bait the entrance of the tunnel, and lure the beast into a trap?

We started discussing the logistics of doing so. This took a while, but since we were talking about solving an in-game problem, it felt very much like we were still playing the game, and so I didn't mind at all. None of us know anything about setting traps, but we've all seen Predator, which seemed good enough.

The party decided to fashion sharpened sticks from wood in the area, then surround the pit with a giant lasso of sorts, with the sharpened stakes worked into it - a sort of huge mancatcher. They would loop the other end of the rope over a tree limb above the hole. When the beast emerged, they'd pull on the rope to tighten the spiky lasso around it. That sounded pretty good to me.

There's a proficiency for setting snares in the PHB (page 84), so I used that as a reference. None of the PCs were proficient in this particular skill, but I don't like the idea that a character can't even attempt something they aren't proficient in (especially when it's something enterprising adventurers would likely have some idea how to do), so I decided to use the proficiency description as a guideline and let the party attempt it anyway, with a hefty penalty due to their lack of proficiency, of course.

According to the proficiency description, setting a large trap requires 2 to 3 people and 2d4 hours of work. The skill is available to warriors and rogues, so I decided that Ash, Haymond, and Karven could attempt it. When it was time to spring the trap, they'd each make an ability check with a -6 penalty -according to the proficiency description, Dexterity for thieves like Karven, and Intelligence for warriors like Ash and Haymond, for whatever reason. Ash and Karven both have proficiency in rope use, which I decided applied here, reducing their penalties to -4. If two of the three checks succeeded, the trap would work. The players wouldn't know if it worked until the moment arrived. 

While the party got to work, Jakayla stalked off into the forest to acquire some bait, and returned with a skinned rabbit - nice and bloody and smelling like meat.

I totally didn't expect any of this. I'm not sure why I expected the players to go enthusiastically skulking about in the hole, considering their aversion to danger thus far. At first I was a bit annoyed, as it seemed like this was another quest they'd deem "too scary" to pursue, but once we discussed how they would approach the problem and how I would adjudicate the resolution, it was actually quite satisfying. Going into the hole to fight the monster on its turf is the modern D&D approach. Setting a trap like this felt old-school, but I also had the benefit of a weird, highly specific rule to use as a guideline for my adjudication, which made it feel like we were playing AD&D specifically - an unfairly maligned blend of old and new.

The Beast Emerges

The party waited around for the beast to take the bait. I rolled a few random encounter checks, deciding that the next one would be the beast. To simulate that the party was trying to attract the beast, I rolled twice and took the lower result (i.e., the one more likely to result in an encounter). 

After a few hours, they heard something crawling around below. A pair of wriggling antennae emerged from the opening, and a chitinous, bug-eyed, mandibled head emerged. Haymond's heart sank as he realized he was face to face with the very thing he had been trying to avoid - an ankheg!

Before the beast could react, the party sprung the trap. I asked everyone to make their ability checks, and two of the three of them succeeded! The giant bug-catcher lasso closed around the ankheg's body. The spikes dug into the creature's vulnerable belly, and the party hoisted all eleven feet of the worm-thing into the air. As the rest of the party leapt forward to stab the creature to death, it writhed and shrieked, and let loose a stream of acidic spittle!

I rolled to determine which of the present characters the ankheg would target, and got poor Jakayla. She failed her saving throw versus poison and was hit with the full burst of 8d4 damage. Luckily, it didn't kill her (I had made her a 2nd-level ranger, but in writing this I'm realizing that I gave her the hit points of a 3rd-level ranger - oh well, I would have loved to describe the NPC melting into a pile of steaming bone. Bernhardt quickly tended to her wounds, and Haymond and Karven held the monstrosity aloft while Ash and the hirelings, Sheyla and Yinvalur, stabbed it to death.

Triumphant, the party hauled the ankheg's corpse out of the hole and retreated. Haymond concluded that this was a relatively young ankheg. There would likely be more of them - and bigger ones, too. The party exited the forest to camp on safer ground and return to the site to try their plan again in the morning.

Second Time's the Charm

On their way back to the hole, the party encountered a stag, which they took the opportunity to kill - bigger bait for a bigger worm. They set their trap again and waited. They didn't have to wait long. This time, they got a slightly smaller ankheg - only ten feet long. The sprung the trap again, and this time they failed. The rope snapped and the ankheg was loose!

Breath weapons have the smallest initiative modifier of just about anything in AD&D - +1, which is faster than even a dagger or darts, which are +2 (PHB, page 125). I rolled a 1 on d10 for the ankheg's initiative, so it went before even Karven, who was using throwing darts (a modified initiative of 4). 

This time the ankheg spat at Ash, who dodged the worst of the stream of acid but still took 10 damage. The ankheg turned and retreated back into its hole - with a speed of 12 (120 feet per round if all it does is move, or 60 if it moves and attacks), it could attack, retreat to the bottom of the hole, and skitter another 30 feet away before anyone could react.

Ash and Karven both considered jumping into the hole after it, but thought better of it. They would return to Grimerun with just the one ankheg corpse, and seek help before returning.

Getting Help (Again)

Back in Grimerun, the halflings rejoiced that the beast had been slain. Haymond informed them that the bad news was that there were more where that one came from, but the good news was that they'd have very rich farmland for the foreseeable future, due to the ankhegs' beneficial effect on the soil! That was all well and good, but it was difficult to think ahead to the benefits of aerated soil when ankhegs were slurping up halflings like boba tea.

The party spoke to Shaelie Bouldershadow, the village's priestess and de facto leader. She gave them a portion of the reward, but pleaded with them to rid the village of the infestation at its root. The party expressed their desire to recruit more help and return to finish the job.

I go back and forth on how I want to handle henchman. One approach it to create a roster of recruitable NPCs in each settlement based on the population and local demographics, which is appealing to me, but tedious. The other way to go is to just say the party can recruit whoever they want wherever they want, which is unsatisfying because it feels too easy. Paladins, rangers, druids, and bards are "better" in some ways than their more basic counterparts, so I want it to feel more difficult to recruit them. It's another problem I haven't really solved.

The party resolved to return to Stormhelm and look for help there. If they're unsatisfied with what's available, they'll go next to Grasshold. Because Grasshold has a larger population (I mentioned that would be important later!), it will have more NPCs to recruit, which means more options. At the very least, I can create curated lists for those two settlements, and fill in the rest as needed.

The party returned to Stormhelm (a day-and-a-half journey), encountering some pilgrims along the way. Normally I'd determine their alignment and what god they worshiped and roleplay the encounter based on that, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood to improv this session, so I handwaved it. The players joked that they were probably more Bone Lord cultists, and I immediately wished I had thought of that.

The party arrived in Stormhelm without further incident, and that's where we ended the session. Nobody leveled up this time - the party really only overcame one challenging encounter, with the first ankheg, so they didn't get much experience. Everyone needs a few thousand experience points for their next level, so I guess this is where the level progression in 2e begins to slow down, which I'm all for. Let them spend a few more sessions feeling small in the world before things begin to pick up.

Ultimately, I still have a lot of work to do in thinking of ways to make the more common random encounters more interesting and breathing life into my settlements, but I really enjoyed the approach the players took here. While their cautious playstyle is sometimes a little frustrating, it feels like they're approaching problems in a way which is more appropriate for the more deadly system in which we're playing, and I'm starting to be satisfied that playing a different edition of D&D actually feels like playing a different game, which is what I originally wanted.

Next time, the players look for help and go on a bug hunt!

On Initiative

Initiative is a system that's always bothered me in D&D. There are tons of way to determine it throughout D&D's history, from Chainmail to B/X to AD&D to what exists in modern editions of D&D. There are things I enjoy about all of these systems - pass-through fire, the elegance of B/X, weapon speeds, casting times, and the chance of spellcasters being interrupted in AD&D, and the simplicity of 5e - but none of them quite "do it" for me.

I'm currently running an AD&D 2e campaign, and expressed some concerns early on about the initiative system using weapon speed factors and casting times. Admittedly, we haven't had a ton of complex combats yet (after nearly ten sessions!), but I've warmed up to the system. I usually have players declare actions at the start of combat, roll initiative accordingly, and then we only reroll when someone wants to do something different than they did the previous round.

After my AD&D game ends - which might take years, based on my last campaign with this group - I'm hoping to run Old School Essentials (using the Advanced Fantasy rules, if Exalted Funeral ever restocks the Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome, that is). OSE uses the B/X initiative system, which, like with AD&D, I'll likely try to run unmodified for as long as it doesn't bother me too much, so I can feel like I'm having the intended experience.

For now, I want to talk about initiative in 5e. By the book (PHB, page 189), initiative is determined by each creature in combat making a Dexterity check. Then, combat is resolved in descending order based on the results of each creature's check. Some character classes get an additional bonus to their initiative check - the Champion fighter adds half their proficiency bonus at 7th-level, the Gloomstalker ranger adds their Wisdom modifier at 3rd-level, and the Swashbuckler rogue adds their Charisma modifier at 3rd-level, for example.

Some players have a problem with this, as rolling a die, adding a number, writing down the total, and reordering the totals into an descending list is seen as onerous. I play entirely online at this point using Roll20, so the turn tracker makes this a lot easier, and I don't see it as a problem. If I was playing in person, I'd just ask one of the players to track initiative.

Still, one could always simplify 5e initiative by using old-school side-based initiative. This is even suggested as an optional rule in the 5e DMG (page 270). One benefit of this system is that it allows players to better coordinate their actions, emphasizing teamwork. A drawback is that it accentuates the "rocket tag" nature of 5e combat - the side that goes first is, in all likelihood, going to devastate the other side before they get a chance to act.

I'm growing to enjoy the more complex nature of initiative in AD&D. If anything - as with many elements of 5e - my inclination is to make 5e initiative more complex.

Declarations, Simultaneity, and Speed of Action

Initiative in 5e is truly turn-based - that is, actions aren't occurring simultaneously. A character or monster waits around until it's their turn, at which point they take all of their actions all at once - interrupted only by the occasional reaction - then the next person goes. One drawback of this is that players often don't decide - or even think about - what to do until their turn comes up, which often slows the combat to a standstill. 

I prefer that actions are declared at the start of the round, then resolved somewhat logically in order, while occurring simultaneously in the fiction. This has the added benefit of allowing spellcasters to be interrupted while casting. Since they have to declare whether or not they're casting a spell at the top of the round, they start casting immediately. If they're hit before their turn comes around - at which point the spell goes off - they may lose the spell. This is an important balancing factor which checks the otherwise outsized power of spellcasters.

Initiative in 5e also doesn't account for what actions are being taken. A character can do nothing but move one round, then move, take a bonus action, and cast a 9th-level spell the next round, and it takes the same amount of time. It doesn't matter if the character is using a heavy weapon, a light weapon, a loading weapon, or a reach weapon - so long as they rolled high enough, they go next.

5e has another optional initiative rule for speed factor, similar to AD&D (DMG, page 170). Light weapons and smaller-than-medium creatures are faster, and heavy weapons, loading weapons, two-handed weapons, and larger-than-medium creatures are slower. I don't really want to modify every initiative roll every round, however.

Taking Initiative

Inspired by a combination of B/X's elegance, AD&D's use of speed factor, and 5e's own suggestions of speed factor modifiers, I've come up with personal house rules for initiative in 5e. The exact order of operations differs somewhat from B/X where my own sensibilities and preferences are at odds with those rules.

The important thing to note is that players and monsters still roll for initiative at the start of combat. It's important to me to preserve this element of initiative in 5e so that those classes which benefit from bonuses to initiative do not then lose out on those class features. The initiative score is used only to resolve ties within the following sequence, which plays out in order each round:

1. Check monster and NPC morale: This obviously requires a system for checking morale.
2. Declare actions, spellcasters begin casting: AD&D suggests that the DM does not telegraph the monsters' intended actions to the players, but I disagree on this point. Telegraphing the monsters' actions allows players to make informed choices. If the monsters look like they will flee, the players can decide whether to pursue or simply let combat end. If an enemy spellcaster begins casting, the players can focus-fire the caster to attempt to interrupt the spell. If it looks like the goblins are moving to attack the cleric who desperately needs to heal the wizard, the fighter can move to intercept them. The general type of action is what's important, not the specific target of an attack or spell or the destination of movement. If a character declares that they're attacking with their bow, but their target is dead or out of range when missile attacks come up in the initiative order, they can choose another target. If the spellcaster prepares a fireball, but a melee forms before the spell goes off, the caster can later aim the fireball such that it causes less harm to their allies.
1. Spellcasters who take damage must make a Constitution saving throw (PHB, page 203) or lose their spell: The spell fizzles, and the spell slot is lost.
3. Bonus actions: These go off first, unless they have a specific trigger which wouldn't occur until later (for example, a character who uses two-weapon fighting makes an off-hand attack after the main hand attack, and a monk uses Flurry of Blows after taking the attack action). Otherwise, these are resolved in order following the standard initiative system below (for example, a rogue can dash, disengage, or hide as a bonus action before a wizard can cast misty step as a bonus action). I allow creatures to drink a potion as a bonus action, so that would also go here.
4. Magic item activation: My inclination is that these should be faster than regular attacks and spellcasting, as they normally require only a command word or press of a button to activate.
1. Scrolls go on spellcasting: Because they're just a means of casting spells.
5. Missile attacks: These go off first to represent that ranged attackers have arrows knocked, bolts loaded, thrown weapons ready, etc. This allows ranged attackers to attack before their targets take cover, and before a big melee forms, at which point they may have to fire past other creatures or risk hitting their allies. Beyond the first round of combat, this obviously becomes more complicated as the scenario unfolds. Missiles attacks, in turn, are resolved in the following order (ties are resolved by initiative order):
1. Finesse and light weapons: Thrown daggers, darts, hand axes, and light hammers.
2. Non-finesse, heavy, light, loading, and two-handed weapons: Javelins, nets, slings, spears, and tridents.
3. Heavy, loading, and two-handed weapons: Blowguns, bows, and crossbows.
6. Movement and non-attack/spellcasting actions: Now characters and monsters can move into or away from melee, seek cover against further missile fire, and the like. I'm tempted to further restrict spellcasters by ruling that they can't move on a turn where they're also casting a spell (which comes from B/X), but in wanting to preserve 5e's conception of highly-mobile spellcasters, I'm resisting the urge here. Here, using initiative order is absolutely necessary, or else everyone simply moves in somewhat disparate directions (the melee fighter moves towards the goblin archer, who in turn moves away, meaning no ground is gained at all), unless the two sides are like-minded about closing into melee range. This is also where characters can open doors, switch weapons, and otherwise interact with objects, attempt to hide (if not using a bonus action to do so), and the like.
1. Regular movement occurs first
2. Dash actions occur last
7. Melee attacks: This comes after movement by necessity. Melee attack are resolved in the following order (ties are resolved by initiative order):
1. Reach weapons of all kinds: Glaives, halberds, lances, pikes, and whips. A lot of these are heavy weapons, which come later in the order, but it only makes sense to me that these should strike first, due to their longer reach. I'm a bit divided on whips being here, but whatever. No one uses a whip anyway.
1. Characters and monsters with the longest reach go first: A bugbear character with +5 feet of reach wielding a glaive attacks before a human wielding a glaive. A roper with a 50-foor reach attacks before just about everyone. 
2. If reach is equal, resolve actions in the order used for other melee attacks: Tiny monsters using natural weapons go first, then whips and small monsters using natural weapons, then lances and medium monsters using natural weapons, then glaives, halberds, pikes, and large monsters using natural weapons, then huge monsters using natural weapons, then gargantuan monsters using natural weapons.
2. Tiny monsters using natural weapons: The will-o'-wisp's shock attack is faster than a dagger.
3. Finesse and light weapons, and small monsters using natural weapons: Clubs, daggers, hand axes, light hammers, rapiers, scimitars, shortswords, and sickles. The twig blights claws are as fast as a dagger. 
4. Non-finesse, heavy, light, reach, and two-handed weapons, and medium monsters using natural weapons: Flails, javelins, maces, morningstars, spears, war picks, and battleaxes, longswords, quarterstaffs, spears, tridents, and warhammers wielded with one hand. A mind flayer's tentacles are as fast as a longsword.
5. Heavy and two-handed weapons, and large monsters using natural weapons: Greatclubs, greataxes, greatswords, mauls, and battleaxes, longswords, quarterstaffs, spears, tridents, and warhammers wielded with two hands. A yeti's claws are as fast as a greataxe.
6. Huge monsters using natural weapons: A giant elk takes a few second to rear up and kick with its hooves.
7. Gargantuan monsters using natural weapons: A rock swoops down and rakes with its talons.
8. Spells: It's important that these go close to last, as I like the idea that spells take longer to cast than most other action in combat. It also provides ample time to interrupt or slay spellcasters with attacks, which is an important balancing factor. It makes it harder to cast fireball, lightning bolt, and cone of cold in an ideal spot without causing collateral damage to allies. 
1. Spellcasting is resolved in ascending order based on the level of the spell, such that 1st-level spells go off first, and 9th-level spells go off last. The wizard can fire off a magic missile before another wizard casts time stop. Otherwise, ties are resolved by initiative order.
9. Breath weapons and other special monster abilities: These go last purely as a matter of taste. I like the idea of a dragon "charging" its breath weapon and unleashing it at the end of the round. It gives players time to react, such as by killing the dragon before it attacks or by taking cover. In AD&D, breath weapons actually have a smaller initiative modifier (i.e., they are faster) than a dagger, so one could also put this near the top of the turn order if desired.
1. Larger monsters go later: Like with melee attacks with natural weapons, so a young dragon unleashes its breath weapon before an ancient one, for example.

A final important note is that creatures can choose to take any of the above actions during a later stage of the initiative order than listed. So a character can take a bonus action after activating a magic item, make a missile attack after moving, or make a melee attack after casting a spell, for example. 

They character is essentially delaying these actions until later in the round if they're for whatever reason unable or unwilling to take that action when they're otherwise supposed to. Granted, I suppose a player could choose to delay their entire turn until the end of the round, taking all of their actions at once, but the drawback would be essentially granting initiative to their enemies, so maybe that isn't a problem.

Here is the order of operations sans my commentary:

1. Check monster and NPC morale
2. Declare actions, spellcasters begin casting
1. Spellcasters who take damage must make a Constitution saving throw or lose their spell
3. Bonus actions (unless triggered by another action later in the initiative order)
1. Resolve the order of bonus actions based on the type of action (i.e. magic item activation, movement, spellcasting, etc.)
4. Magic item activation
1. Scrolls go on spellcasting
5. Missile attacks: 
1. Finesse and light weapons
2. Non-finesse, heavy, light, loading, and two-handed weapons
3. Heavy, loading, and two-handed weapons
6. Movement and non-attack/spellcasting actions
1. Regular movement occurs first
2. Dash actions occur last
7. Melee attacks:
1. Reach weapons of all kinds
1. Characters and monsters with the longest reach go first
2. If reach is equal, resolve actions in the order used for other melee attacks
2. Tiny monsters using natural weapons
3. Finesse and light weapons, and small monsters using natural weapons
4. Non-finesse, heavy, light, reach, and two-handed weapons, and medium monsters using natural weapons
5. Heavy and two-handed weapons, and large monsters using natural weapons
6. Huge monsters using natural weapons
7. Gargantuan monsters using natural weapons
8. Spells
1. Spellcasting is resolved in ascending order based on the level of the spell (i.e. 1st-level spells first, 9th-level spells last)
9. Breath weapons and other special monster abilities
1. Resolve order based on monster size (i.e. tiny first, gargantuan last)

It's worth noting that I'm not currently running a 5e game, so these rules are not playtested. I'm sure they are in need of some refinement, and there are likely edge-cases which I'm neglecting, but this is a theoretical framework from which I'll work the next time I DM a 5e game.

Quick Thinking, Sage Advice

One thing which still bothers me is that Dexterity is used to determine initiative regardless of the action being taken. It makes more sense to me that spellcasters would use their spellcasting ability modifier instead, if they're casting a spell. My inclination in that case would be for spellcasters to reroll their initiative each round if they're switching between casting spells and taking more physical actions - or else just modify their initiative by the difference between their Dexterity and their spellcasting ability as needed - but that kind of rerolling/fiddling is the sort of thing I'd like to avoid. Plus, again, I use Roll20, and as of now there isn't an option to change the ability score which modifies the initiative roll, so this seems like more trouble than it's worth.

5e's designers have even suggested using Intelligence for initiative instead of Dexterity, and this is a popular house rule I've seen here and there. However, it doesn't really solve the problem I have, which is that initiative isn't being determined by the action being taken, just whichever ability score is higher for the specific character or creature.

Ultimately, like many of my house rules, this won't be for everyone. It is likely more complex than many people prefer, with players and DMs needing to keep track of who took what actions over the course of a round - more than they normally would have to, but I crave more complexity in my 5e games, and specifically in the case of initiative. 

This process may exacerbate the issue of initiative slowing the game down, but my hope is that the combination of declared and simultaneous actions, along with a quick outline of the order in which these actions are resolved, will actually reduce time spent on individual players' turns, and make combat feel more lifelike and fluid, rather than artificially turn-based, playing out in sudden starts and long, drawn-out stops.

AD&D 2e Play Report: Session 9

Last night, we played the ninth session of our ongoing AD&D 2e campaign. The play report for session 8 is here.

To recap, the party was attempting to remove some bones from a haunted ruin when they were confronted by an angry apparition. Despite the spirit's initial hostile intent, the party managed to convince it not to attack them. They quickly exited the ruin and returned to town with the bones, which their current patron, a priest, used to conduct a ceremony which he hoped would put the spirit to rest.

The party took some time in town to figure out how they might identify the properties of a magical alien helmet. I've since reflected on the difficulty of identifying magic item in AD&D 2e and have written about my own approach to identifying magical items. Ultimately, the price of identification was too rich for them, so they held onto the helmet for now.

The party then embarked on a long journey to the south, intending to investigate a series of attacks by barbarians on logging camps near the town of Houndrun. 

In the town of Mythshire, they encountered a group of adventurers called the Pit Fighters of Self-Restraint, who had killed some pegasi and stolen their eggs on behalf of the town's evil wizard overlord, and were parading around with a pegasus corpse for the townspeople to see. While the party did not appreciate the gruesome display, they didn't want to start a fight in town, and so they moved on as quickly as possible. 

At the gates of Southreach, the party encountered a group of merchants from a faraway coastal nation, selling exotic crabs, ivory, and pearls. 

From the city they moved onto Houndrun, where they met with the foreman of the logging company and learned more about the barbarian attacks. The town had an uneasy truce with the local tribe, but recently the barbarians were believed to have adopted a new leader, who had launched several attacks on the town's mills, going so far as to destroy the newest of the facilities.

The party departed town to locate the barbarian camp, encountering a mounted patrol from Houndrun along the way. They passed by the recently-raided lumber mill before coming upon the camp. They were able to get very close without being detected. Karven Stone, the thief, sneakily climbed a hill leading to what the party believed would be the chieftain's tent. Karven assassinated the lookout and lowered a rope so that the rest of the party could climb up.

Player Absence

Karven's player was late to this session, so we started without him. My general rule is that we'll begin play so long as we have a quorum - so if the group consists of four or five players, we'll start once we have three; with six or seven players, we'll start once we have four (this is as many players as I've had in a single game since I started DMing again around six years ago).

Normally, if a player isn't present, their character doesn't do anything - they're just hanging around in the background. I don't want to make decisions on a player's behalf that might put their character in jeopardy, and I certainly don't want to be controlling a player character in a combat scenario on top of everything else I've got going on. However, since the players were hesitant to take any action until they had gathered more information, Karven was the only one capable of sneaking around, and I wanted to get on with the game, I decided to let the players decide what they wanted Karven to do in the player's absence.

Reconnaissance 

The party listened at the tent for a moment and overheard a heated discussion between two people. One person was congratulating the other on recent victories, but cautioning that the tribe quit while it was ahead - they had made their point by destroying the new lumber mill, which was in breach of the town's agreement with the tribe. The other person seemed elated by the tribe's conquest and wanted to push the issue, hoping to put the remaining mills - and eventually, the town itself - to the torch.

Karven snuck around the sides of the tent and discovered a pair of guards out front, as well as at least another half dozen warriors milling about the camp below them. There was also a horse-sized statue of a wolf by the gates. The statue had marks on it as if it had been in battle, and its mouth and claws were stained with what looked like blood.

The party discussed their options, and concluded that if they could eliminate the tribe's bloodthirsty leader, then they might be able to convince the more levelheaded person in the tent to pursue a peaceful solution.

Surprise!

The party positioned themselves outside the tent, and Ash and Haymond Baler, the two fighters, slashed a hole in the canvas and leapt through. There they found what looked like the barbarian chieftain, clad in a fine set of plate mail, and what looked to be a druid.

I made surprise checks for the barbarian leaders, with a -4 penalty because the party was until now unseen and unheard (DMG, page 139). Both rolled 9s, with a modified roll of 5 - surprise occurs on a roll of 1, 2, or 3 on a d10 (PHB, page 147). The barbarian leaders were not surprised. 

The chieftain drew a gleaming longsword and called for his guards, ordering them to subdue the party and "feed them to the stone wolf." Haymond declared that the party was here to broker a peace, which gave the druid pause - I rolled a 10 on his reaction roll (8 on 2d6, with -4 because the druid's initial disposition was hostile, and +6 for Haymond's reaction modifier from Charisma). However, the chieftain's initial disposition roll of -1 was such that he would not listen to reason - he leapt into battle immediately, and so we rolled initiative.

To Have and to Hold

Both Bernhardt Dalton, the cleric, and the barbarian druid began casting spells. Bernhardt's spell went off first - hold person (PHB, page 261)! The spell targets 1d4 individuals, and Bernhardt rolled a 1, so he chose to target just the chieftain. If one person is targeted, they save at -2. The chieftain failed his save, and so would be completely immobilized for six rounds (two rounds per level, and Bernhardt is 3rd-level)!

Karven was next, and threw a dagger at each of the guards who had entered the tent from outside to aid their chieftain. He hit both of them and killed them instantly. Ash and Haymond closed into melee with the chieftain. Melee attacks against a held opponent are automatic hits (PHB, page 120), so they started wailing on him. 

It's pretty crazy how good hold person is, especially when compared to the 5e version. The players were delighted by it. We'll see how they feel about it when that same spell eventually is turned on them!

The druid finished casting his spell - flame blade! He took one look at the situation unfolding before him, then struck down the chieftain with his own fiery sword (if there is no other opposition in a melee, a held opponent can be instantly slain, which I felt applied here).

Restoring the Balance

The party was pretty shocked by how easy this all was, but they fully anticipated that the druid would be willing to play ball. He introduced himself as Feli, and explained that he was ready to make peace. The chieftain, Redford, had been the strong leader which the tribe needed in order to make a statement, but the wrong done by the lumber company had been righted, and Feli wished to see the balance restored. 

Feli regretted that it had to come to this, but told the party that he could convince the rest of the tribe to cease its aggression towards the town, if the party could convince the lumber company not to build any more mills. This seemed reasonable, so the party agreed.

Unfortunately, Noa, the subchief who would rightfully take Redford's place as leader, shared the chieftain's bloodthirstiness. He would have to be eliminated so that Feli could install a more malleable leader. With the druid's help, the party came up with a plan for Karven to sneak into Noa's tent at night and slay him. The tribe would be incensed by the assassinations as first, but they would look to Feli for guidance, and he would steer them towards going on the defensive, rather than retaliating.

This whole series of events might read as odd, but 2e portrays druids as mystical balance-keepers who are True Neutral by necessity. Chief Redford, on the other hand, was Chaotic Evil. I had determined ahead of time that there was a power struggle within the tribe, which the party could exploit in order to resolve the quest without necessarily killing everyone. If things had gone another way, they could have ended up battling the entire camp, but that isn't how the dice fell.

Skullduggery

The party waited until late in the evening, after most of the camp had passed out from drinking too much grog. Feli managed to keep any other members of the tribe from entering the camp to find their leader slain. Karven snuck out under cover of darkness, creeping silently past two groups of drunken, sleeping warriors. He slipped into Noa's tent undetected and cut his throat. Before leaving, he plundered the subchief's magical scale mail armor and war hammer.

Karven and the rest of the party made a swift exit from the camp, promising Feli that they would put in a good word for the tribe's new leadership. They slinked off into the woods, back to their donkey and dogs, and made a hasty camp for what was left of the evening.

Beetle Battle

The next day, the party set off back to Houndrun. On the edge of the forest, they heard a great racket, as if huge beasts were doing battle in the forest just ahead. They came upon a pair of giant male stag beetles, ten feet long, engaged in a territorial battle, with two females looking on. Giant stag beetles are worth 975 XP - a 6th-level monster. They have three attacks, two of which do 1d10 damage each, and the third is a crushing mandible attack which deals 4d4 damage. Luckily, the beetles were indifferent to the party, so they wisely decided to steer clear of the display.

One of these days, one of these random encounters is going to kill them. Today was not that day!

Back to Town (and City)

The party returned to Houndrun and met with the logging foreman, Bradyn. I hadn't taken note of the name I had randomly generated for the foreman last session, and neither had any of the players, so I generated a new one and made sure to record it this time. His name has always been Bradyn.

Bradyn was True Neutral himself, so he understood when the party communicated to him the importance of avoiding any further antagonism towards the Wolfkin Tribe (had I randomly determined that his alignment was Evil, it would have been more difficult to convince him). The party received the reward for their services, spent the night in town, and set out back towards the city of Southreach in the morning.

Along the way, the party had another encounter with merchants. I thought it'd be funny if they encountered the crab merchants from before, so that's what happened. The party bought some more crabs and continued on their way.

Rumor Fatigue

The players decided to spend a week in the city collecting more rumors. The party learned of two new quests:

• Near Evertide, a nearby coastal town to the north, the Dragon Beacon had become illuminated. The Dragon Beacon is an old tower that, when illuminated, burns with an eerie purple light, and releases magical pheromones which attract dragons. A band of piratical kobolds has been raiding fishing boats and cargo ships off the coast, and it's believed that they're somehow responsible for the Beacon reactivating. Worse yet, a flight of small drakes has been spotted flying around the tower's summit, which means bigger dragons will be on their way soon. The town is looking for adventurers to go investigate the tower and figure out how to turn it off.
• Near Grimerun, a village farther to the north, hobgoblin raiders have been attacking foresters and taking them prisoner. The hobgoblins are believed to be based out of the City of Oni, a ruined city which was long ago the seat of an ogre mage king.

At this point, I'm becoming fatigued by the players' gluttony for rumors. They're already aware of three other quests - a band of troublesome ogres, a mysterious forest beast, and a bug hunt. Unfortunately, they're afraid of the ogres (thinking that they're too strong for the party to confront, which I estimate they are not), and Haymond's player is convinced that the bug hunt involves ankhegs, which he is personally afraid of (it's not ankhegs). If it were me, I'd jump at the chance to battle iconic D&D monsters and possibly die, but it's not up to me.

At a certain point, I'll just have to tell the players that there are no more new rumors, and they simply have to pick a quest and do one, even if it scares them, because they're adventurers, and we're here to play the game, not not-play the game because we're scared.

Since one of the rumors they already had (the mysterious forest beast) and one of the rumors they just got (hobgoblin raiders) both originated in Grimerun, the party decided to go there next. 

Uninteresting Fantastical Items

In the meantime, Haymond and Karven visited the university in the upper city to see if someone could tell them anything about the armor and hammer they had plundered from Noa. Hilariously, the DMG suggests that consulting a sage should also cost at least 1,000 gp per day (page 146). Since this seemed high, I instead consulted 5e's rule for hireling expenses (PHB, page 159), with is 2 gp/day for a skilled hireling. Since the party was consulting an expert sage, I doubled it to 4 gp/day. Since the question was specific, it would take 1d6 days for the sage to come back with an answer, and success would not be automatic.

Unfortunately, in this scenario I did not practice what I preached in my recent post on item identification. I didn't have anything interesting about the items to share with the party, such as their origins or appearance, so I simply said that the items were of expert make and probably had a minor enchantment. The players remarked that this seemed like a much better alternative to paying 1,000 gp for an identify spell, and I can't help but agree with them. It's an adjudication I made on the fly, and not one I'd make again, since it undermines the expectations of the setting which I'm trying to establish.

For contrast, if the party had asked a sage about the strange helmet they recovered from the Whispering Tomb, for example, the sage would have told them that it had the makings of an alien device, likely used for neural enhancement by psionics-wielding creatures - this gives them clues about the item without directly divulging its properties, encouraging informed experimentation. Something to keep in mind for the future.

Bernhardt felt comfortable enough to test the items out, and at this point I informed the players that the items were scale mail +1 and a war hammer +1 - funny, didn't I just write a post saying a DM should never give their players an ordinary war hammer +1 specifically? Oh well. Sometimes we don't always live up to our own ideals.

This is where we wrapped the session. Next time, the players will head all the way back to Spiritbrook, then continue north to Grimerun. From there, they plan to hunt for the forest beast, then pursue the hobgoblin lead.

Bernhardt leveled up, and is now 4th-level. He gains some hit points, a 1st-level and 2nd-level spell slot, and a weapon proficiency (he is now proficient with the war hammer). His THAC0 improves by two (now 18), and his saving throws improve as well.