Oberholt: AAR

Oberholt has wrapped up with a final victory of Law over Chaos. Coalition forces under the command of Lord Eros Tyring defeated the invading Chaos god Khorne's ground army of demons while Redcorn sacrificed himself and half the population of the realm to battle Khorne's aspect on the spiritual level. After 2 1/2 years I'm going to pass off DMing to another player and take a bit of a break.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about what I learned during this experimental campaign. I've spoken at length in session reports about what we were trying to do and tried to share what I was learning as we went. Essentially, we were testing the brOSR methods of 1:1 time keeping, staying as close to rules as written as possible, and reliance on emergent gameplay over predetermined plot points with a group of players who are not chronically online and hadn't formed their own opinions for or against.

We used the ACKS system which is the only modern ruleset that can compete with the OG AD&D for this game style. I avoided my predilection to try to be prepared for every eventuality and let the dice determine most everything, leaning into randomly created dungeons, treasure hoards, and points of interest in the wilderness. This combined with low or no preparation towards sessions is referred to as Lazy DMing and is quite aptly named.

I'm going to go into what worked, what didn't, and then offer some advice for anyone looking to run a game like this.

What worked:

- 1:1 time keeping: It's the single best way to encourage engagement in and longevity of the campaign. The pros far outweigh the cons.

- RAW: System choice is key to running a successful campaign. Use something that can support a wide variety of play options with actual rules. Non-game non-systems are bad at this, requiring too many rulings from the DM. DMs are not game designers. Hell most game designers aren't game designers. Play AD&D or ACKS and read the fucking manual (RTFM).

- Patrons: Patrons assume the role of NPCs in the world and offer a breath of life by playing to those NPCs' interests with energy the DM can conserve for other places. Use them to get input on what the big bad might do in the dungeon after several delves, or the witch in the woods might do, or the dragon the PCs discover down the way. The Patrons in Oberholt all generated gameable material just by running their domains and interests as independent actors rather than a DM contrived part of a narrative. Patrons are a double-edged sword which I'll get into later.

- Downtime: With 1:1 time keeping comes the opportunity for PCs to take actions during "downtime", when no session play is happening. This allows them to liquidate treasure, create magic items and spells, recruit mercs and henchmen, and anything else they can think to do to set the session up for an actual game. No one wants to RP the haggling with the blacksmith for the price of a sword, gtfo of here with that. This too is a double-edged sword which I'll touch on later.

- Multiple parties: 1:1 also opens up the opportunity for multiple parties of PCs. Whether your players are confrontational and choose PVP or more cooperative, multiple parties gives every player a chance to try different classes and alignments they wouldn't normally try. It adds a different dynamic than "We're all heroes" or "We're all villains".

- Player agency: Player choices drove the direction of the game, not DM railroaded plot. Let your players show you what they want out of the game. You're a referee, not a narrator or playwright. Run the game that emerges from the convergence of player choices and dice results.

What didn't:

- Setting generation: RTFM. I made choices as a result of foolish notions from previous experiences when generating the setting that ended up being a problem the whole campaign, most significantly the available markets. Follow the advice that your system offers for generating the setting, it's there for a reason.

- Scale: With inexperience and a new playstyle, I made a mistake early of revealing the entire map. I was leaning into the Lazy DM concept particularly for downtime. The intent was to allow travel and things to happen without my oversight during downtime. What actually happened was the game shrank and the wonder of exploration was taken from the players. Let the players explore the world, that's part of the game.

- Dismissal: With expanded scale came the dismissal of small things like mundane random encounters and smaller domains that fed larger. There was little to no interaction with smaller villages or hamlets that should technically exist to support the larger domains on the map. This cost valuable opportunities to engage with the world and focused the game only on big events. Small details matter and can generate gameable scenarios, don't overlook them.

- Downtime: Both with Patrons and PCs, I allowed unsupervised downtime play. The intent was to preserve DM energy while allowing the players to play the game according to their interests and energy levels between sessions. What happened was an explosion of resources from "farming" lairs and other actions and a "turtling" mentality, where those engaging in downtime were rewarded for farming rather than engaging with the other players. These resources inflated the economy and essentially ruined the game. Downtime should be run on turns with DM oversight. The alternative doesn't work.

- Lazy DMing: Most of the biggest mistakes that I made during Oberholt were made with an eye towards how I could make the game easier for me, the DM. Zeroprep can work, sometimes, but ultimately it's inferior to necessary preparation of setting and session. It's ok to prepare the ground, just not the action. The whole purpose of avoiding over-prepping as a DM is to avoid wasted effort. If the players truly have agency and the ability to choose their own course of action, then you don't want to find yourself preparing content that will never be interacted with. You have to find the balance between zeroprep and prepaddiction.

Advice:

- Say no. What I mean is that players will push you. They'll argue and finagle and "yeah but" you to death. It's ok to say no, even if it's only "no I need a chance to consider". You want to indulge them in their interests without giving them everything. Like most things it's a balance, but any ruling you give becomes a rule of the campaign. Consider house rules and edge cases carefully.

- Avoid Patrons in high level established Lawful positions in civilization. The caliber of men in our gaming sphere are builders, creators, disciplined men of high moral standard who will end up running the world. While this is good, in general, it flattens play in the game. Patrons should be if not antagonistic, at least apathetic and/or opportunistic when it comes to PCs. They should offer missions, but they should always "get theirs" from it. Very very rarely should there be gimmes or true total cooperation. Discuss that with potential patrons prior to recruitment.

- Henchmen are not extensions of the PC. They have their own desires and roles within the game. If the player does not enforce that side, then you'll have to.

- Avoid anything that results in too much energy spent for too little gameable content. In Oberholt, it was unsupervised downtime and the Machinist class. Encourage players to pursue their interests, but learn how to implement those interests into the game. This ain't solitaire.

- This game style can run perpetually. Know that going in and prepare for what you want out of the game. ACKS suggests a series of threats to the world. Once those threats see some resolution, win or lose, it can be a natural stopping point for the campaign. Alternatively, you can run perpetually in the same world. If doing so, I recommend sharing DM duties for different regions or different threads/hooks/dungeons etc. Even different tiers, one running lower level play, one running larger scale stuff. Whatever the campaign and group can support.

- Your mileage will vary with player interest. What's called "mudcore" gaming will be more common and comfortable to the conventional player. It's harder for them to see the advantage of setting goals for themselves, engaging in domain play, and expanding their view beyond the dungeon. Be patient and try not to force them. With luck you've got a player or two that can help guide their peers into the next tiers of play, but if not, advise where you can and otherwise just run the game the dice put in front of you.

- Don't be afraid to ask questions of your friends who have done this before.

- Don't be afraid to admit mistakes and correct them.

I'm excited to see what my local friend comes up with when he takes over DMing for the group. I'm hopeful that this AAR offers some useful information to anyone considering running this style of game. I'm thankful for the players in Oberholt that made the thing go for as long as it did.

Session 83: And I Feel Fine

 Session 83: And I Feel Fine

9/15/24-9/24/24, rest 9/25, active 9/26

PC: Miquella, Cracaryn, Basus

Hench: Mulligan, Kushima

#ACKS

We had a lighter table this week with some of our more regular players out for various reasons. Khorne’s advance into the world had developed into occupation of the Butzkrag and creation of a destructive, spreading cloud of corruption. It had already destroyed the natural order in the hex that it occupied and looked to spread beyond.

Redcorn the Crusader and Lord Tyring had both sought out Jolus the Laughing Skull, the strange wizard that lived near Bellport, for advice or aid in combating Khorne. As previously revealed, Jolus was actually an avatar or incarnation or… something… of the God Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer 40k. This implied an extreme level of power but in true 40k fashion at great cost.

Jolus advised that he could perform a procedure, or ritual, or something to combat Khorne if he had a volunteer of maximum level (14th in ACKS) that would be willing to be consumed by the process. It would also cost half the light of the world to save the world, and it weren’t gon be an eyeball like Matrim Cauthon. Thanos snap, more like.

Word was sent out to the big dogs of the campaign, Issac, Tyring, and Redcorn who were afaik the only ones eligible for the sacrifice. Tyring had specific questions about the what and how. Redcorn set up an in session hook to retrieve sacred water from the Vesve Forest which he memed would give him an advantage during the battle with Khorne. Maybe so? We’ll find out, because that’s what this session was all about.

Some days were spent preparing, with Redcorn footing the bill for magic items and scrolls and such. The plan was to use the portal in the subterranean sanctum of Ehlonna at Tamaris to get to the Vesve. Step two was a little more loose. Step three was to use scrolls of teleportation to get back. Easy peasy.

Generally I’d bop a patron on the nose for handing out as much juice as was given during this session, but honestly they were gonna need it. Only Cracaryn was leveled and they couldn’t pack in a bunch of troops or henches because teleportation scrolls don’t grow on trees. No matter how many magic items you give a first level PC, they still only have 5 hps.

Through the portal, into the Vesve, which holds a special place in the heart of this DM. My first long-time PC in AD&D was a druid that rose to command the circle in the northern Vesve, perpetually embroiled in battle with Iuz out of the east and the other crazy stuff that goes on there. It was nostalgic to return there and flavor the session with details from basically a past life (20+ years ago).

He coulda had a rifle, you don't know.

The first random encounter roll was a unique terrain result that was a magical place. So I figured hell, they popped out right near the Circle. I made a big deal about how unwelcoming the forest was to outsiders and how hard it was to travel but the dice saved the group from a long search to find any local aid.

The party was welcomed by a council of elder druids in a smoke tent. After their story was corroborated by the sigil of Khorne marring the sun on this side of the world too, the druids took them more seriously. While their tangible resources were tied up in the stalemate against the demigod Iuz, the druids could offer some magical assistance by way of the Safe Travels spell, which aided in evasion and getting lost checks, and a ritual I made up on the spot to aid in travel time.

With a rough map to a once-sacred location lost to the enemy, a mystical waterfall that the group was supposed to collect actively falling water from in a special vessel supplied by Redcorn, they set off. Cracaryn’s ranger abilities and the extra magic allowed the group to evade several very dangerous encounters, but they were caught by a lair of strixes, the ACKS version of stirges. Cleaving is such a great mechanic for fights like this, with a bunch of little things that die easy. The group made short work of it and didn’t even bother to look for treasure. They were laser focused on the mission.

Eventually the tracker located the waterfall, but it was fouled and corrupted into a disgusting oozing ichor instead of the idyllic scene of old. They scaled it to try and locate the source of the corruption, finding a dark cavern where the spring was supposed to be. A rotting unicorn’s head was suspended above the spring by three iron chains covered in runes, dripping what appeared to be fresh blood into the spring steadily.

Mingo Falls

Clearly this wasn’t right. Planning how to interact with it took a while, with a pretty heavy handed strategy of shooting fireballs at it and trying to pull it down with ropes. Eventually they attacked where the chains were anchored into the ceiling, releasing the imprisoned entity that was powering the ritual. A body of synthetic flesh grew from beneath the unicorn’s head and arms sprung out to lash about with the freed chains.

The fight was pretty tough, with the mage hench and the only member able to use the teleportation scrolls nearly killed. Basus the Paladin was bewitched and turned against the party, but it was near the end of the fight. As any experienced DM can tell you, rarely does a single powerful enemy fare too well against a determined adventuring group. Need minions and extra targets to distract/dilute the party’s power.

Once the creature was destroyed, the spring slowly began to correct itself. They camped, collected the pure water in the AM, and teleported back to Millon. A quick ride got them to Jolus’ tower where they met Redcorn. In an augmented reality scene laid telepathically over the vegetable corpse on his throne, Jolus imbued Redcorn with crazy powerful psychic spiritual reality altering magic and everyone present had to roll a 50% chance to fuel the endeavor. Unfortunately, both Miquella the Bard and Basus failed and were consumed by the spell. The rest of the region, if not the world itself, also has to make that roll. Juiced up and ready to throw down, Redcorn will be off to combat Khorne as soon as I figure a way to run that.

Musings:

I still have the war going on in the background with some loose threads that could be interesting. Ultimately, this is a reset for the campaign. I want to give someone else a chance to DM and I want a break after 2 ½ years or whatever it’s been. But I want a chance for folks to engage with their legacies in interesting ways. I appreciate all the work and time we’ve had in the game, but it’s time for something new.

I will DM again. I may come back to Oberholt after a time skip and extrapolation of the fallout after the Snap. I may do something completely new. I may tie into the new DM’s world. Who knows? I’ll have an after-action of the whole campaign and my findings as a DM when it’s all over. It was an experimental endeavor for me and my table of players that taught us all a lot about running a truly open game focused on player agency.

Session 82: Round 2

 Session 82: Round 2

8/31/24-9/2/24, rest 9/3, active 9/4

PC: Valda, Zektel, Brumdor, Cracaryn

Hench: Bazam, Taco, Crom, Zero, Nicky, Randy, Ricky

#ACKS

Bigtoe the Betrayer, the Kinslayer, the Wombat attacked Teutch tower and took it over just a day prior to this session’s scheduled date. The treasonous dwarf was focused on killing Teutch but also included in his orders provisions to capture or kill Zektel the Shaman. I could have run that in abstraction but with the date so close to the session I thought it would be more interesting to play it out.

We opened on the aerial combat between Bigtoe’s steampunk flying anime mech thing and Teutch’s aerial defense force of griffins and hippogriffs. The adventurers were out of the loop about why it was happening. Zektel’s troops were able to bring tidbits of recon during the first minutes of the session which drove their discussion about what to do.

Apparently there were kill squads out hunting henches and vassals of Teutch, including Zektel. The word was they would accept surrender from Zektel but he didn’t trust that at all and immediately planned to RUNNOFT. Zektel’s logic was that even if he could negotiate in good faith with a known backstabber, he certainly couldn’t do so if he was already in custody. Brumdor the Machinist, a known associate of Bigtoe’s, was trying to talk him into surrendering. Eventually the party agreed to let Brumdor talk to Bigtoe while they tried to get away.

Brumdor spoke with Bigtoe after the invader narrowly defeated Teutch’s hench Lockleaf in the dogfight over the Purple Tower. Bigtoe allowed Brumdor the opportunity to talk the shaman down before ratcheting up the pressure. He was in no condition or mindset to think about Zektel with Teutch still at large and his robot banged up from the battle.

In the meantime, the party used some magic to try to sneak away down towards Rushford, but the switchback leading to the river was guarded. They tried to talk their way past which failed and thought better of forcing their way through, even though they were pretty sure to win against some normal mercs. The group returned to the tavern to wait.

Brumdor delivered Bigtoe’s demands. Surrender or else. Zektel hated it but chose to abide. When more troops showed up under the command of Bigtoe’s henchman Augusta, Zektel went quietly with the party in tow. Augusta the Lawful Crusader was irritable with the whole thing, but did his duty and delivered them to Bigtoe in the lobby of Teutch tower where he lounged smoking a cigar and receiving reports of the aftermath of the battle. Once receiving an official renunciation of Teutch and allegiance to the purple tower, Bigtoe forgot about them and focused on finding Teutch. The party filed out and considered their next move.

The goal was a bag of any kind. They thought the Sphinxes might have been battling since last session’s ambush attempt and they figured to take advantage of whichever side was weakest. They traveled out to the Fallen Castle dungeon and found signs of battle with tufts of sphinx fur and scorch marks and blood everywhere. Cracaryn was able to track Meowster’s crew leaving the scene, but lost the trail due to the rugged terrain and penalties to tracking flying creatures.

After camping, the party decided to take a run at the hellhounds inside the dungeon. Zektel scouted with his spiritwalking and got a little turned around by trying to walk through 20ft walls. Eventually he determined that the hellhounds had suffered casualties during the sphinx battle and only had four. He was confident that using his protective magic that the party would be able to kill the remaining ones and take their loot.

They entered the dungeon and buffed up, doing their best to creep up on the hellhounds. Valda and Brumdor would hold the front line with immunity to fire while the rest shot from outside of the creatures’ breathing distance. The plan worked ok until one of them leapt over the frontline and breathed into Nicky the Nightblade’s face. She crumpled but that was it for the enemy who was defeated soon after.

The group got an impressive haul of treasure in the form of items, a little bit of cash, and bounced out of the dungeon and back to the Tower to end the session.

Musings:

The whole point of downtime activity, particularly with Patrons and other entities that do not play in sessions, is to generate gameable content. The latest war happening in downtime while the adventurers play in session has produced something, finally, for them to interact with live. That was cool, they got through it ok, and were even able to gain a bag. 

Zektel’s former liege is at large, with the Shaman having access to his congregation and his head still. It remains to be seen how the rest of the war will play out and whether the Shaman and Machinist can coexist.

Session 81: The Venture in Adventurer

 Session 81: The Venture in Adventurer

8/19/24-8/25/24, rest 8/26, active 8/27

PC: Valda, Zektel, Brumdor, Cracaryn

Hench: Bazam, Crom, Zero, Nicky, Randy

#ACKS

The session started on 8/19 due to time jail from last week, but the party was fine burning a day so hey whatever. Team B started in Teutch Tower where they paid Teutch’s people to start researching the weird magic crown they found a while back. Zektel also started to see the effects of the conversion of Teutch’s mostly apathetic population to The Cult of the Foot under his weird Neutral Aztec god.

Zektel was adamant that the party finish their mission for Teutch to locate and map Simba the Sphinx’s lair. The reward wasn’t what they were accustomed to in terms of gold or treasure so there was some balking but with no real better options off they went.

Teutch had wanted to attune to the dungeon near his tower since the beginning of Oberholt. He even built a road for adventurers to get out there easily. Its upper levels have been delved a few times by PCs and NPCs, but no real attempts had been made thus far to “clear it out” or delve to the bottom or anything.

The idea was floated during downtime that there would likely be a backdoor to a lower level that Simba and his pride of Sphinxes would use to come and go, rather than traverse the winding, weird hallways of the upper levels. That sounded plausible to me and my trusty 2d6 supported it, so when the party started searching for it they eventually found a massive door with runes over the frame at the bottom of a hidden crevice in the rocky hills around the Fallen Castle itself.

Some estimation of “how deep in the dungeon would this door lead” from outside was met with “lol” and “lmao”. Mythic underworld dungeon environments don’t make sense in the light of the rational sun-kissed world of the surface. Just simply no way to guess that. What they were sure of is that it was significantly deeper than the first level of the castle just by nature of how deep the crevice was.

Zektel the shaman used his cooldowns of Spiritwalk and Commune to investigate and divine the nature of the door and dungeon beyond, learning of some hellhounds nearby and confirming that Simba was indeed laired within. Valda’s new sword that can Locate Object was unable to pick up on Simba’s trademark rings however, so the group suspected his lair was far from the door.

The group returned to the Tower and schemed. They would talk to Meowster and have his sphinxes set an ambush for Simba. They would upgrade their armament by buying from Bigtoe’s nearby workshop. They would commission a magic scroll to help read the runes on the door.

Fast forward a few days to the party camped above the door. Brumdor had a new mech robot thing, Meowster, Snowball, and the rest of his pride showed up, and the party was discussing what to do with the door.

It's only a matter of time before we see the Exosquad in action

Cracaryn wanted a war of attrition. Ambush anything that came out of the entrance. He felt that breaching the door would give them away and force Simba’s pride into action, which the party did not want to be a part of because sphinxes are scary tough. If they were gonna breach the door they had to find their target fast before it could respond.

Zektel wanted to breach and delve the level for treasure. He felt the group would eventually find the enemy lair and be able to complete their mission. The rest of the party had no real opinions. They argued back and forth for a while, despite not having learned how to even open the door.

Dispel magic didn’t work, but Meowster agreed to translate the runes for them just to watch them work at the riddle. I mean, all these sphinxes there had to be a riddle, right? They spent some time trying to dope it out, even trying to get Meowster to solve it for them. He of course would do no such thing, not for free at least, and they argued about whether to pay him and his motives for being here and why oh why did we agree to adventure? Some jokes were made about profit margins and only seeking Venturer style adventure (bean counting) and they slept on it.

I'm adVenturing!

Overnight, a sphinx and some hellhounds exited the door, but the hounds' incredible senses picked up something was amiss. Initiatives for the watch and monsters were tied! ACKS II says those who are outnumbered act first, so the enemy side hauled ass back into the dungeon. Snowball leapt down to try and hold the door open while Valda grabbed a big stone to try and block it should it close.

The sphinxes said they could try to hold it open for a while but it was obviously very difficult. The group did not trust the cat dudes and argued for a while until the rock holding the door open shattered and it slammed shut. They finished their rest and then Zektel paid for Meowster’s best guess at the answer to the riddle, which was fortunately correct. The party buffed up expecting hellhounds and went inside, the nigh invincible mantis robot thing in the lead.

A very large hallway led them to an intersection. Early tracking showed sphinxes and hellhounds parting and Zektel called to follow the hounds. They lost the trail at the next intersection and wandered a bit, finding a large room with a pulsing spiral of runes across most of the floor. I warned them that their buff spells had worn out, but that got missed I guess as there was confusion about that later on. 

They backtracked and located the hellhound lair which turned to combat fast as the hounds heard the stompy robot approach. The first round of combat had the mech near destroyed and some solid hits on the enemy. Valda was blasted down and the group called a retreat. They were able to throw summoned animals at the hounds long enough to escape. In the distance, they heard cackling and baying from the hounds as they tortured one of the summoned wolves.

Musings:

The history of the campaign has set unreasonable expectations of rewards for missions. That showed itself during this session in the arguments over why they were even pursuing the sphinx mission in the first place. The pursuit of adventure is clouded by the return on investment and profit margin conversation. A natural result of gold for xp systems, but exaggerated by the inflated economy in Oberholt where coffee runs are showered with more gold than anyone can carry.

There’s also a sense that NPCs are going to simply adventure for them. Arguments were made about why Meowster’s pride wouldn’t just go in the dungeon, but that wasn’t the agreement that Teutch struck with the Sphinxes. We’ll see what interactions shake out around that doorway now that each side knows the other is there.

I made a mistake in the combat with the hellhounds in that I allowed them to cleave with their fire breath. It didn’t feel right at the time but I couldn’t find anything specific in the book about it. Consultation with ACKS oracle Arb confirmed my suspicion. Even though it’s a single target effect, it’s essentially a spell-like ability which is not eligible for cleaves. I don’t know that it would have changed the fight significantly because most of the meat the party had in front were low HD wolves, but I pulled off at the end and decided the hounds would torture a captured wolf instead of pursue. I don’t mind killing everyone but not if it’s by a mistaken rule.