Another Expo is in the books, the spell books. It looks like a great time was had by all. Tough to tell as I was at my table all weekend and got to visit the vendor room on Saturday for about 20 minutes, other than that I felt like a cave dwelling denizen as I did not see much daylight.
The weekend was loads of fun. Ran 4 sessions. 2 of 5e D&D, 1 session of the 1977 D&D Holmes rules and a Saturday night session of Mothership. Once again I was blessed with good groups and a lot of fun. I even had some players return from last year.
Started off the Expo on Saturday morning with the first session of the Bartlesby Family Reunion which is an adventure featuring a family of Otterfolk that have to rescue their parents from evil. Sounds like a kids game but it really isn’t. Family friendly but not geared as a such to be a kids game. Lots of surprises and tongue in cheek moments. We had 4 players, a mom and her 2 kids and another walk on.
everyone had fun and all the players got props for each of their magic items, potion bottles with dice, rings, amulets and various other tokens. Dice, minis and a player box was also given away to each of the players at the table.
I did not run the 2:30pm session, my daughter was scheduled to run a game at this time but unfortunately no players signed up for this time.
The evening session on Saturday was devoted to a session Mothership, which is a Science FIction Horror RPG. Running Mothership was a little stressful to start as of all the RPGs I have run and played, this is the one I have had the least amount of experience. I lucked out once again with a fantastic group. Mostly players who game master other games and if was a load of fun.
I ran Distress Signals, the first scenario in the introductory module, Another Bug Hunt. Let’s just say, it did not go the way I expected. The team had “first contact” earlier than expected and the encounter lasted about 90 minutes. It was about 15 minutes in game time but it was action packed. The marine NPC, Macready, that was attached to the party was the first to go, a brutal wound that removed his head.
The players came up with new and interesting ways to deal with the “problem” they were facing. After the encounter, they patched themselves and moved on. They did complete the mission before experiencing a self inflicted TPK which was done by unanimous party vote. Apologies for being vague but trying not to give away any spoilers.
Sunday morning came and it was time for old school D&D. Return of the Purple Dungeon. This was a dungeon that was inspired by the Purple Dungeon series we played back in the late 70s and early 80s. They were called the purple dungeons for no other reason than they were written in purple ink and the nap was also drawn with purple ink.
Once again I had a really good group. The session started with everyone creating characters and being old school D&D everyone was surprised how different it is from the current 5e version. Everything from character creation to combat is different. It actually makes for a much quicker, and deadlier, game. It runs a lot faster as a rule because there are a lot less rules.
The game was played old school with the map drawn on a large sheet of graph [paper and paper minis. Each of the players were given a copy of the rule book and a set of the Chessex Poly Set GM and Player dice. The only rule that was changed from the rules as written was the 1″ = 10′. We used the 1″ = 5′ to make for a more spread out and realistic scale. We tried back when the game first came out to use the 1″ to 10′ and it just didn’t fly. Under the table was an orange shag carpet to bring back the 1970s basement or living room vibe.
One character lost their lives in the game and many came close. The Wizard with 2 hit points was the hero of the day after finding a potion of growth and giving the goblins a run for their money.
Every encounter was had the feeling that a TPK was right around the corner. The players played smart and were victorious.
Sunday and the Expo concluded once again with the First Annual Bartlesby Family Reunion. The table was full. Six players were in attendance. two for the players had returned from last year. They had played the Trouble at Hawksmoor game I had run at the expo.
The game started in a Tavern and quickly moved locals to the Bridge of Lost Souls, an overly complicated, yet cool, miniature set piece complete with mountains, a playable bridge and actual fog rolling into the scene. On the other side of the bridge was the entrance to the Temple of the Roc, the inevitable site of the final showdown. But first the adventurers had to make their way across the bridge.
While crossing the bridge a fog rolled in and from withing the fog giant tentacles from an unseen assailant besieged the group. The group fought hard and finally vanquished the foe(s) and made their way across the bridge where they were met with a solitary figure dressed in black armor. The group was given a riddle and if they could answer correctly they could pass unharmed.
One of my returning players answered the question correctly and the team was allowed to pass unharmed. Up to the entrance to the temple they went.
Passing through the entrance they realized that it was no ordinary entrance and it was a portal to another place. Unpon entry they found themselves in a room with a door directly across from them and a pentacle on the floor.
One of the players went to the door and attempted to open the door. The door happened to have a glyph of warding placed on it. When touched the door released a fiery surprise that caused fire damage to all but one of the characters. The door would still not open.
One of the players told everyone to stand on one of the points of the pentacle. When this was done the door opened and the player moved forth. Through the doorway they opened a large cathedral with pairs columns running down the middle with a large dais at the far end and the foes they had been after holding Ma and Pa Bartlesby hostage. Ma and Pa looked completely unconcerned. The foes were the evil Cleric Berry Colander and his henchmen.
After some heroic dialog from the heroes was retorted by some evil chatter from the evil Berry Colander, a demon and it’s minions were summoned and a battle ensued. The Bartlesby kids defeated the demon and it’s minions after a tense fight and as they closed in on the trio of cardinals, the cardinals disappeared into thin air leaving Ma and Pa to be rescued.