The Ultimate Pseudo-Historical Fantasy Campaign

I'm planning on running a pseudo-historical fantasy campaign in the near future. I'm gonna set it in some far corner of Siberia, but from the player's perspective it will start as a traditional fantasy game using Swords & Wizardry (or LotFP) for character creation. They wont necessarily know they are on earth, at least not at first. 

I want to use certain old school tools, such as using the advice of starting small in a 100 x 60 mile region using Underworld & Wilderness Adventures to flesh out castles and rulers as we encounter them. if they leave the starting region we'll use the Outdoor Survival map and random encounters from U&WA. 

Dwarves and Halflings are allowed though they are rare and common people will be leery of  them. Elves are evil, I'm gonna use the Elves from Lion & Dragon and run them like Melniboneans, cruel and haughty Fae, stealing children, and luring men under Elf Hills and such.

Depending what the players do, and how long this runs, I have some ideas of what lies to the north and the south. If they go north they'll pass through Blackmoor, LotFP's Weird New World before reaching Mount Meru at the North Pole, where they could discover the openings to the Inner Earth. For that, if it ever happens, I'll use Grimm Aramil's Lexicon Geographicum Arcanum Vol. 1: Species of the Hollow Earth. If the go south they will discover China and the Silk Road (Sword & Caravan). 

I also plan on using a custom version of Jeff Reints' Random Campaign Advancement from Flame Princess Zine #6? Which will slowly move the campaign from high-magic fantasy to mundane low-magic historical. So, dwarves could fade away, or magic and magic-users, or even clerics could lose their abilities. It will all be random so, in classic old school fashion, I have no idea how this world will play out. 

I want to throw in the Lost Dungeons of Tonnisborg somewhere in there.  

I imagine this will be the ultimate campaign that plays out over several IRL years, but who knows, you know how these things go. Plan big, prep small. or something.

LotFP Greyhawk Campaign

I wanted to run some old school Greyhawk. I thought, why not use the old 1e rules, I had OSRIC, so we made characters and started running Against the Slave Lords. We played the first 2 modules then the party split up, half went to Greyhawk City and half continued on. The ones who continued died in the Dungeons of the Slave Lords. 

Then we played a wild ass Lamentations campaign for the rest of the summer. Finally in the Fall we picked up Greyhawk again, but this time I converted everyone's characters to LotFP rules and off we went. 

Everyone had at least 2 characters, 3 to 5 players at the peak, then back to 3 players. We played a few adventures around Greyhawk from Treasures of Greyhawk, they found a Spelljammer vessel so we went into space and played a couple adventures from Skull and Crossbows. I never owned any of this stuff back in the day. These books were the reprints from drivethru. 

Finally they came back to Oerth and finished the Slavers modules. Then we started Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk. So I've run 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition modules with Lamentations of the Flame Princess and so far its been pretty smooth. 

I tied this new campaign in with my old Greyhawk game from 2001 in the 3e days. So my old high level character has made an appearance. My players are these young 20-something guys, so they are getting to discover Greyhawk for the first time.

Some people might wonder why Lamentations for the ruleset. Well, first I just love LotFP, it was my first retro-clone. And I like its skill system, the encumbrance, and there's very few class restrictions. For me as the DM, LotFP is just so smooth and easy to run.

Our highest level characters currently are around 8-10th level. 

It's been epic, we are wrapping up our last session by the end of the year. I enjoyed revisiting Greyhawk, not sure what our next campaign will be.

Until next time. Have fun, be cool. See ya next year.

The Doom That Came to Chapman Farm - Available Now!

Available Now!

What happens when a ritual summoning goes wrong? A small town in Colonial Maryland is about to find out. Can your characters survive the coming doom? This short adventure is designed for characters to be dropped right into the action. There is little time to plan and lives hang in the balance, but a hasty attack could mean death. Or worse.

 

Get your PRINT copy here.

or PDF here.

In Print

 

I was finally able to get all of my RPG modules in print. For awhile lulu.com didn't do book less than 20 pages I think. These books were 15 and 16 pages. Well, now they do. Saddle-stitched and in A5 size.

They fit in nice and snug with my other LotFP books, as if they were always meant to.

My next step is to convert Colony of Death over to A5 size. So that will be coming soon.

It's an incredible feeling to see your work in print and be able to hold it in your hands. 

Please check them out and enjoy!

The Place of the Skull https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/mw-hess/the-place-of-the-skull/paperback/product-p4j4q4.html?page=1&pageSize=4

The Witch Shack https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/and-friends-and-mw-hess/the-witch-shack/paperback/product-v2qnrr.html?page=1&pageSize=4

My Own Private Fantasy Fucking Vietnam

 

 

When I first heard the title "Fantasy Fucking Vietnam" (See: Green Devil Face #1) this is what I imagined.

Fighters or Specialists only 

Physik skill for medics (Flame Princess Cult #1)

Crossing Classes option

Just to keep things simple all guns do 1d8. Burst weapons are save versus Breath Weapon or take 3d8 damage. 

The players for this were all about 21 years old so they have never seen Apocalypse Now, so I lifted the plot and placed them on the Qelong River. I used WWII: Operation White Box for character backgrounds and military ranks and basic equipment. I used the weather and some of the encounters from Qelong, and BOOM! you have LotFP Vietnam.

NPCs

Special Forces Unit 

Sgt. Drake, William (Bill): Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Fighter, 8hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, Morale 11. BDUs, M-16, 9mm

 Cpl. Willis, Jeffery – Heavy Gunner: Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Fighter, 8hp, .50 Cal 2d6, Morale 11. BDUs, .50 Cal

 Sgt. Lebowitz, Herschil – Radio Operator: Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Fighter, 8hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, Morale 8. BDUs, M-16, 9mm, Radio

 Pvt. Akers, John – Tunnel Rat: Armor 13, Move 120’, 2nd Level Specialist, 8hp, 9mm 1d8, Morale 10. Search 4, Tinkering 4. BDUs, 9mm, flashlight

 Cpl. Edgar, Robert (Butch) – Point man: Armor 13, Move 120’, 2nd Level Specialist, 8hp, M-16 1d8, Morale 11. Bushcraft 4, Search 4. BDUs, M-16, flashlight

 Pvt. Hicks, William (Bill) – Interpreter: Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Specialist, 8hp, M-16 1d8, Morale 9. Languages 6. BDUs, M-16

 Cpl. Andrews, Wesley (Wes): Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Fighter, 8hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, Morale 11. BDUs, M-16, 9mm

 Pvt. Jensen, Thomas – Medic: Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Specialist, 6hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, Morale 10. Physik 5. BDUs, M-16, 9mm, med kit

 Bad Guys 

Viet Cong: Armor 13, Move 120’, 0-Level, 6hp, Kalashnikov 1d8, Morale 10.

 Vietnamese natives: Armor 12, Move 20’, 1HD, 5hp, fists 1d2, spear 1d6, blow dart 1 +poison, Morale 8. Save versus Paralyzation or stunned for 1d4 rounds.

 Col. Kurtz, Insane White God: Armor 14, Move 120’, 3rd Level Fighter, 23hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, knife 1d4, Morale 12.