A New Actual Play Mini-Series Incoming
Farewell to the Chasm Crawlers and Introducing a New Mini-Series
A Fond Farewell
As many of you are probably aware, I have been playing a campaign using Four Against Darkness. 4AD is a great, light-weight solo-specific system and I have enjoyed my months-long adventures with the Chasm Crawlers. I released the last entry in the series and, in hindsight, I shouldn’t have. My motivation for the story was waning before I finished the attack on Chasman Village (see here) and I should have used the ending of that entry as a stopping point for the series. Instead, I attempted to push myself to play more, progress the Crawlers’ story more. The last entry, where the party encounters the Black Knight in the night, will be the final installment (at least for now) of the Chasm Crawlers’ adventure using Four Against Darkness.
Perhaps the party will come back in a continuation of the original series, or, more likely, I will port them over to a “crunchier” OSR system (such as OSRIC or Basic Fantasy, or maybe even to B/X!) and continue their adventures. But that’s all in the future, somewhere out there in the ether that is the time stream.
Introducing an AD&D Mini-Series
As you might have also guessed, there will be no fiction this week. I do, however, have an exciting mini-series planned using the AD&D 1e retroclone, OSRIC, and the AD&D adventure module N4, “Treasure Hunt” coming up in a couple weeks.1 As I write this, I am reading AD&D 1e and OSRIC rulebooks. I’ve never played AD&D (or OSRIC) but am finding it pretty similar to other versions of “classic” D&D that I’ve read or played.
For those who might not be aware, “Treasure Hunt” was written by Aaron Allston—who I knew first through his work in the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, specifically his contributions to the Rogue Squadron novel series—for TSR way back in 1986. I first discovered N4 around this time in 2022 as I was looking into Level Zero content. Since then, I’ve wanted to play the module (not necessarily because the story is great, but because I have an obsession with the concept of zero level characters) and, now that I’m a bit more versed in TTRPGs in general, and the OSR mindset specifically, I think the time has come to give it a go.
My player characters are four: Arthur the Cook, Blanche the Innkeeper, Poppy the sheep herder, and Bertram the Butcher.2 These four are classless characters, with no alignment, weapon proficiencies, equipment or coinage. They begin their adventuring careers with an experience point deficit of -500, and will reach level 1 only once they have accumulated enough XP to reach 0. The caveat of this adventure module is that the DM (in this case, me) will keep track of PC actions on the included “Character Tracking Form" (see below). Each time the PC acts in a way fitting to a specific class, or alignment, the DM will make a mark. When the PCs reach 0xp and gain 1st Level, whichever alignment and class has the highest number of marks will be the character’s alignment and class.
In an attempt to provide the PCs the best chance of survival, I have opted to use a “min out” rule for starting Hit Points. Using this optional method, the lowest HP rating a PC can have is 3 (before any penalty or bonus from Constitution). Even with the maximum roll of 6, the PCs will be in danger of being taken out with a single hit so this is not ruining any game balance. Should a PC die, I will roll up a replacement and bring them into the story as quickly as possible (without damaging the narrative).
One final note: AD&D uses THAC0 and Descending Armor Class. THAC0 gives me nightmares, and therefore I will be converting all AC to ascending. The method is simple: the descending AC is subtracted from 20 to produce the ascending AC.
Hafkris the Half-Orc, prison warden on the Gloamtide, is listed as having a descending AC of 6 (wearing studded leather). Converting this to ascending AC requires a simple equation of 20 - 6 = 14.
Setting Up the Narrative
The party was among the many captives taken from their homes when the pirate vessel, Gloamtide,3 put into port and spewed forth its horde of sea-borne brigands. Many died, and those who survived were taken prisoner upon the ship. The story will begin after some time upon the Gloamtide as the PCs attempt to free themselves from their bonds.
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SGH is currently running Proper Villains, a Blades in the Dark actual play.
Tavon Gatling’s THUNDERFANG, a Sherlock Holmes inspired Starforged actual play currently in its third and final season!
Errant Adventures is currently releasing new podcast episodes every Monday, playing Traveler in a galaxy of their own making. You can also catch the Ironworn Guyz podcast where Steve and Matt Risby discuss various TTRPG topics.
Castle Grief successfully funded the awesome punk-rock zine, Studded Leather. Check out all of CG’s other releases on the Castle Grief Itch page.
Write Firster has started a new adventure with Sundered Isles, the newest entry in the Ironsworn RPG line of games.
Special thanks goes to
and for encouraging the use of AD&D and OSRIC respectively. I had originally planned to make use of Basic Fantasy RPG 4th edition.Full disclosure: I generated the characters’ “professions” using Knave 2e’s Career Table (p. 5). While the 1e DMG has a d% table for non-professional skills (p. 12), I found the more civic oriented careers in Knave 2e worked better for the zero level characters than the broader categories provided in the 1e DMG.
Gloamtide was generated using the Cursed Ship Name table from Shawn Tomkin’s newest addition to the Ironsworn RPG stable, Sundered Isles (with a roll of 45).
This is going to be exciting to read! Converting to ascending AC is almost the same as THAC0. You could always use the "to-hit" tables out of the 1e DMG too.
Great choice choosing OSRIC/AD&D. I just picked up a bunch of books and am getting into the swing of things. This will be perfect for inspiration and motivation! Really looking forward to this.