Playing with No one

A couple weeks ago I talked about my adventure playing a GM-less game with someone else. That didn’t work very well, so I decided to play with no one else. Just me, a hex map, some books, and some “dice.”¹

Here’s what has happened so far. Note that there's a lot of information in the footnotes.

The Character

Name	Matias de Aurélio
Class/level	Fighter/1
Experience Points	0
STR	14 (+1)
INT	8 (-1)
WIS	9 (±0)
DEX	10 (±0)
CON	13 (+1)
CHR	12 (±0)
Hit points	9
AC	16 (Plate)
Move	9”
Talents	Diplomacy Swashbuckling Wilderness Survival
Weapons	Spear Dagger Light Crossbow Quarrels (30 each)
Coins	1 gp
Gear	Backpack Rations, iron (21 meals) Rope, 50’ Sack, Large Torches (6) Waterskin

The Backstory

I am Matias de Aurélio, a young freeman who will be soon heading out into the world. My father, Sir Aurélio, is landed knight in the service of a local noble. Many years ago the land was blighted by a deadly plague that killed most of the population. Many deserted villages can be found in the wilderness.

While exploring such a village I found a magical portal and stepped through.

Day 1: March 20, 948

Daylight Hours: 5:48 AM – 5:59 PM
Weather: 47° – 62° & Windy

Journal: I went through the portal around 8 AM, and explored the strange land. Other than encountering a dozen or so wild goats in the hex marked with a bison,² nothing happened. I made it back to the portal just as the sun was setting. I will make a point to arrive earlier tomorrow.

1 meal consumed.

Day 2: March 21, 948

Daylight Hours: 5:46 AM – 6:00 PM
Weather: 38° – 64° & Fair

The dotted arrows represent fleeing wildly.

Journal: Arrived through the portal a little after sunrise. Nothing happened in the morning. After lunch I happened across lake to the south.³ On the shore of the lake was the wreckage of a ancient ship. I ventured inside. I was delighted to see a decaying sack with the glint of gold showing through the tears. Unfortunately, two huge (at least 8' tall!),grotesque humanoids⁴ were also in the ship. They spotted me before I spotted them. They looked like they were going to attack me. Fearing for my life, I fled.

Fleeing is not like careful exploration. Instead of picking a direction to travel, my destination was determined by the whims of destiny. As the fates would have it, I found myself heading north, towards the portal. I entertained the idea of fleeing through the portal, but I had not managed to shake off my pursuers. I did not want to risk them finding the way into my homeland, so I continued on.

About two hours⁵ after the chase had begun, I noticed that the monstrous beings were no longer within earshot. I fell to the ground and lay still for a long time, to be sure that I had escaped them.

When I was sure it was safe, I ventured out of my hiding spot. The area was a light forest, just northwest⁶ of the portal.

Looking at the sun, it was about 2 PM. I was too exhausted to continue.⁷ Lacking any camping gear. I needed to make a makeshift shelter for the night. Using my dagger as a survival knife, I was able to construct a crude lean-to and build a small fire.⁸ I used my rations for lunch and supper.

2 meals consumed

Day 3: March 22, 948

Daylight Hours: 5:42 AM – 6:02 PM
Weather: 41° – 73° & Fair

Journal: The lack of comfort combined with the stress of the day’s even made for a restless night. Fortunately no animals or other beings intruded on my attempt to rest.

In the morning, I ate another meal from my rations. Around noon I began to eat another meal when a panther came into my camp. I was worried that another mad dash into the wilderness would lead me further from home. I took a meal from my rations and tossed it to the beast. It worked! After it ate and just lay down and napped.⁹

I packed up camp and set out for the portal. I made it back about an hour before sunset.

2 + 1 meals consumed.

Summary

This was a nerve-wracking adventure! I was sure that the trolls would kill me. Even when I was running away it was far from a sure thing.

I had a lot of fun. I plan on continuing Matias’s adventure.

Experience Points:

In straight D&D, I would not have earned any XP. But I am using the Crowfield experience system. That means I ask three questions:

1. Was the character involved in at least one dangerous combat during this play session?
2. Did the character bring home valuable treasure during this play session?
3. Did the character explore a new place during this play session?

The answer to questions #2 and #3 are easy: No, I did not bring home and treasure. Yes, I did explore new territory.

Question #1 is tricky. I had three encounters:

1. The goats: not dangerous
2. The trolls: very dangerous
3. The panther: could have been dangerous

I ran from the trolls and befriended the panther. Seeing that no combat actually took place, I’m inclined to say “no.” But there’s a line I wrote that says “If an otherwise dangerous combat is made ‘not dangerous’ due to player planning and tactics, the players still get their XP. The idea is to reward the players for playing smart.”

Did I play smart enough for an experience point? I’m saying no for the trolls, but for the panther? I’m not sure.

You tell me! Do I get XP for the encounters?

Gear

I’ve used 6 of my 21 meals, leaving 15.

What’s Next

This wilderness is too tough for a single first level character. I need to find some henchmen or hirelings. Sadly I only have 1 gold piece, so it will be hard to pay someone. Maybe I’ll try to borrow some money from someone, or see if someone will join me as a full partner.

---

1. Instead of rolling physical dice, I’m using a die rolling app that I wrote.↩

2. My mapping software doesn’t have goats.↩

3. The tables said this hex contained a lair. The lair was was determined to be a shipwreck. I came up with a few ways to make that work without altering the map, but I decided it made the most since to add a lake. I roll a die to pick one of the unexplored hexes and made that one a lake.↩

4. These are trolls, but I’m playing this as if I don’t know if they’re trolls or ogres.↩

5. The rules are silent about how long it takes to travel through a hex when fleeing for your life. I looked up some long distance cross country race results, and decided that 1 hour per hex (meaning a constant running speed of about 6 MPH) seemed reasonable.↩

6. According to the rules, you’re not allowed to map when fleeing. I shouldn’t have know what hex I was in. But I didn’t know how to handle this without a GM, so I just hand-waved it away.↩

7. The rules say “For each hex moved in pursuit, a party must spend one-half day resting.” I fled two hexes. I imagine that means I need to recover from exhaustion and minor injuries (like cuts, bruises and sprains).↩

8. I used my wilderness survival talent. I rolled a 20—a success.↩

9. I rolled the best possible reaction roll. If I knew that was going to happened I wouldn’t have wasted the rations.↩

History of the Astral Web, Part 9

This is the ninth in a series of articles covering the in-world history of the Astral Web. I originally wrote the history as 15 or so eras of history. Rather than make one long post, each era is getting its own post.

In many ways, I consider this era to be the “true” beginning of the campaign’s history. The importance of these events affect the history of the world more than any other.

The Story so Far

The First Step: Mankind had terraformed Mars, and established settlements there.

The Departure: Mankind decided to send a million settlers to establish life around distant suns.

Left at Albuquerque: The fleet leaves Earth and is scattered far and wide by some unknown event.

The Awakening (Years 1 - 167): 20,000 humans settle on the planet Dearborn.

Expansion & Empire (Years 168 - 431): Scientists on Dearborn developed the first working Nexus drive. Dearborn makes contact with the other settlers spread out over 74 other planets. The Empire is formed, the pirates rise, and the Interstellar Sentinels are formed.

The Great Revolution (Years 432-478) The Duke of Schellenberg leads an accidental but successful rebellion against the Dearborn Empire. The Empire is split and the Schellenberg Republic is formed.

The Two Nations (Years 478-608): A period of cold war.

The Fall of Dearborn & The Interstellar League (Years 608-852) The cold war leads to the collapse of the Dearborn Empire.

Milthrani Invasion (852-905)

Even before mankind left Earth there had been a question whether or not there was other intelligent life in the universe. Stories of sightings and strange occurrences always circulated. If there was any scientific evidence, it was drowned out by the noise of hoaxers and madmen.

That question was violently answered in the year 852.

The Milthrani, an alien race race, surprised the everyone when they suddenly invaded the planets of Skive and Phoenix in the Schellenberg republic. While the Milthrani seemed to be strategically weak, their technological superiority gave them the advantage. In a two year war, the Milthrani pushed their way south and were finally halted after conquering Falster and all the Phoenix Constellation worlds to the north.

By 854, the invasion had reached a stalemate. Engla Waldend was a natural “pinch-point”, and the Schellenberg navy established a huge fleet there to prevent further Milthrani expansion. It worked. The population of Engla Waldend was further boosted by caravans of refugees escaping the conquered planets that settled there.

The stalemate continued for nearly a decade. Skirmishes were nearly constant, but nothing really changed. The Milthrani could not breach Engla Waldend, and the humans could not push the invaders back. The Milthrani ruled their conquered territory with an iron fist, using the worlds and their populations as industrial captives. Millions of humans perished or were carted off to Milthrani space as slaves.

Retrospective

This is 100% a playable era. This is a time of struggling humans fighting against a technologically superior alien invasion. What more could you ask for in space opera?

At the end of this era, the world looks like this:

• The Mithrani Dominion (12 worlds)
• The Schellenberg Republic (24 worlds)
• The Dearborn Confederation (22 worlds)
• About 20 independent worlds

Playing with Each Other

I wanted to test the U13/L7 system in play, but I wanted to experience as a player. I also wanted to see how the system worked with more than one player, so I invited Frank to play with me. Frank and I live hundreds of miles apart, so we were playing by e-mail.

Seeing that no one else knows the system yet, my idea was that we would play a GM-less game. Two grown adults should be able to explore a randomly generated wilderness without needing a GM. Any questions that would need a GM would be answered by the dice.

The basic idea was that we would be exploring an unknown wilderness. We’d use the tables in Wilderness Hexplore (Revised) to generate the map as we explored. If an encounter was indicated, we would use the encounter tables in 1991’s Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia.

The Dice as GM

The process is pretty simple, and can be compared to a game with a GM. In a normal game, any given scene can be described like this:

1. The GM describes a situation
2. The players ask any questions to clarify their understanding of the situation
3. The GM answers those questions
4. The players states their actions
5. The GM de termines what happens next (sometimes based on a die roll)

In a wilderness based GM-less adventure the process is almost the same. Once the players enter a hex:

1. The players roll dice and consult tables to determine the situation
2. The players ask any questions to clarify their understanding of the situation
3. The players roll dice to answer those questions
4. The players say how they react
5. The players roll dice to determine what happens next

An example:

1. The dice indicate that there’s a river in the hex.
2. The players ask if the river is flowing slow enough for them to ford. (Note: when the dice are the DM the questions should always be a “yes or no” type question. It should be phrased in such a way that the player’s desired answer is “yes.”)
3. The players make a standard roll, but it’s not based on any skill. On a “success” the answer is “yes.” The roll could be either a bonus or penalty roll if the player feels that the “yes” answer is particularly likely or unlikely.
4. The players say that they’ll ford the river.
5. The players make a wilderness survival roll to determine if they’re successful.

That’s all there is to it!

How it went

As you can see from the map, we only explored 5 hexes before something happened. We’ll get there in a minute.

Frank’s character was a cleric named Desmond, whilst I played Galeas the fighter.

Hex 10,10 is where we started. The “henge” icon represents the magical portal that we could use to travel between the wilderness we were exploring and our home city.

Day 1

Time	Hex	Notes
7 AM	10,10	Terrain: Light forest with road Encounters: None We arrived through the portal. We found ourselves in a spare forest, and saw an ancient roadway running east-to-west. Desmond suggested going west and Galeas agreed.
9 AM	09,09	Terrain: Heavy forest with road & river Encounters: 3 bears The forest became more dense, and the road was bisected by a river. A collapsing stone bridge spanned the water. Upstream we spotted a group of large bears in the river, presumably looking for fish. We kept our distance, and so did the bears. We continued to follow the road.
11 AM	08,09	Terrain: Heavy forest with road & river Encounters: 1 human magic-user The forest was still dense, and the road once again was bisected by another river. We encountered a human female. We chatted for a bit (see below), and invited her to join us. She declined. The area seemed peaceful and safe so we took a break for lunch. Desmond wanted to fish for lunch, but I was opposed to the idea (see below). We left at noon. Because the day was half over, I suggested we start heading back. In order to explore new territory we decided to follow the river south, then we’d head east back to the portal.
2:30 PM	08,10	Terrain: Lake Encounters: Giant fish Because we’re no longer on a road, it takes 2 ½ hours to traverse a hex instead of two. We found ourselves on the shore of a large lake. In the lake were fish the size of orca. “You’re going to need a bigger pole,” Galeas said to Desmond. We followed the shoreline until we could head to the east.
5 PM	09,10	Terrain: Heavy Forest Encounters: None There wasn’t anything of interest here. Just as well, as the day was getting late, and we still had 2–3 hours ahead of us.
7:30 PM	10,10	Terrain: Light forest with road Encounters: None We arrived back at the portal, and passed through it back to our home city.

Talking to an NPC

Something strange happened when we met the magic-user in hex 08,09. We rolled standard reaction roll and it came back “favorable.”

Frank had Desmond try to start a conversation with her. In a GM-run game there’s nothing weird about that, but how do you have dialog with dice? I started to wonder if Frank understood what we were doing.

Frank then asked her if there was a city nearby. This is 100% reasonable, but I didn’t know how to handle it. Because the map isn’t generated yet we can’t look at the map to see if there is. Do we roll to see if she says “yes” or “no”? But who’s to say that she’s telling the truth? So do we roll again to see if she’s lying? What if the dice do say there’s a city? Do we just place one on the map somewhere? I still don’t have a good handle how to deal with that situation. Frank was gracious enough to let that drop.

I suggested asked her to join us. I’m a fan of henchmen and hirelings. So Frank started to try to ease her into the idea. “I don’t want to seem too eager” he told me. I tried to reiterate that the dice don’t care.

When we rolled her response to joining us we got a 1–not just a “no” but a “hell, no!”

Disagreeing about Fishing

In the same hex Frank wanted Desmond to fish. Mechanically this would be easy to do—just make a Wilderness Survival roll.

Logically it made no sense to me. First of all, we hand no need. We were already carrying 7 days of food on us. My second objection was that we had no fishing gear. Desmond’s idea was to stand on the river bank and try to clobber passing fish with his staff. My third objection was the time involved: I figured a fishing would take at least an hour, more if he caught some then had clean it and to start a fire to cook it. I wanted to make sure we got back to the portal before nightfall.

I was thankful when he dropped it, though dismayed when he suggested it again at the lake. I had to convince him that you can’t net an orca in a large sack.

Day 2

The second day was just bookkeeping. Mainly Desmond went to the shop to buy a hammock, a tinderbox, and a bear trap.

Day 3

Day 3 started a lot like Day 1. Then everything feel apart.

Time	Hex	Notes
7 AM	10,10	Terrain: Light forest with road Encounters: None We went through the portal and decided that today’s plan would be to go to 09,09 seo that Desmond could set his bear trap. After that we would follow the river north to explore 09,08, then southeast to explore 10,09. From there we would head due south back to the portal.
9 AM	09,09	Terrain: Heavy forest with road & river Encounters: 4 bears (2 cubs & 2 adults) We hoped that the bears wouldn’t be around. The dice disagreed. Not only did the dice say the bears were present, they said that the bears were hostile and only 30 yards away. Oh, and we were surprised!

Against the Bears: The Plan

Before we even discussed a plan, Desmond set the trap. He shouted out a warning to me: “Live trap! Watch out!” He also prepared his mace and shield.

We decided that the cubs would flee and we’d only be facing two adults.

I suggested that I would cover Desmond with my bow why he dig up rations in his pack. We would then drop the rations to distract them and run like hell.

Against the Bears: The Action

I guess Desmond didn’t like the plan. But instead of suggesting a counter-plan, he just cast a Darkness spell on me.

Let me say that again. I suggested a plan for us to work together. Desmond acted on his own plan without asking my input. Furthermore, his action was to surround me in a bubble of supernatural darkness that was 120 yards across. I was effectively blind, in rough terrain and with a deadly bear trap somewhere near me.

Thanks, Desmond. With friends like you, who needs monsters?

Aftermath

I decided, though I never told Frank, that the only thing I could do was to wait in place (moving as little as possible) for the duration of the spell–about two hours. Once he could see, Galeas would deal with the bears if he had to (though hopefully they’d be gone by then). Then he would return to the portal and go home. He would never speak to Desmond again.

Frank kept asking question, but they were the wrong questions. He asked things like “Do the bears enter the darkness?” We wouldn’t know that—all we would know was if it sounded like they were entering. He did ask the right question at some point, but the email chain was full of unrelated chatter and the question got lost without being answered. At one point he said he was walking out of the darkness, but I don’t see where we ever rolled to see if he made it out and if the bears were there when he got out.

At some point Frank just sent me an e-mail saying “you and the bears are dead.”

“Okay,” was my reply.

Playing with Myself

For the most part, I enjoyed the adventure. Clearly, though, Frank and I don’t play well together. So I’m going to try this again, but without Frank. I’ll make it a small series of posts here.

History of the Astral Web, Part 8

This is the eighth in a series of articles covering the in-world history of the Astral Web. I originally wrote the history as 15 or so eras of history. Rather than make one long post, each era is getting its own post.

This week we go from 2 governments to over 20.

The Story so Far

The First Step: Mankind had terraformed Mars, and established settlements there.

The Departure: Mankind decided to send a million settlers to establish life around distant suns.

Left at Albuquerque: The fleet leaves Earth and is scattered far and wide by some unknown event.

The Awakening (Years 1 - 167): 20,000 humans settle on the planet Dearborn.

Expansion & Empire (Years 168 - 431): Scientists on Dearborn developed the first working Nexus drive. Dearborn makes contact with the other settlers spread out over 74 other planets. The Empire is formed, the pirates rise, and the Interstellar Sentinels are formed.

The Great Revolution (Years 432-478) The Duke of Schellenberg leads an accidental but successful rebellion against the Dearborn Empire. The Empire is split and the Schellenberg Republic is formed.

The Two Nations (Years 478-608): A period of cold war.

The Fall of Dearborn & The Interstellar League (Years 608-852)

The “temperature” of the cold war varied wildly during the 130 years. In the early 600’s it was heating up. The Empire was convinced that real war was around the corner and drastically increased defense spending to all time highs. Afraid that the Empire was rife with Schellenberg agents, Emperor Nabin II instituted a crackdown on personal freedoms.

The Empire might have survived either the economy-crushing spending or the tidal wave of popular dissent, but combination was too much. In 608, the empire was dissolved in a (mostly peaceful) political revolution.

Initially, the thirty-something planets of the former Empire were independent. A few petitioned Schellenberg for membership. About half of the worlds banded together to form the Dearborn Confederation. The rest maintained their independence.

With the Empire gone, it soon became apparent that there was a need to establish an cross-border set of laws to govern such things as trade, ship registrations, rules of navigation, etc. Out of this needs was born the Interstellar League. It was founded by all the governments in the galaxy except for the Schellenberg Republic, who feared that it was the old Empire in sheep’s clothing.

The League re-branded the old Imperial Sentinels as the new Interstellar Sentinels. The new Sentinels were an armed fleet that to counter piracy and conduct other law enforcement activities. Although Sentinel could operated in any planetary system, legally they needed permission to do so by the local government.

Retrospective

For those following along at home, at this point we have: 

• The Schellenberg Republic (36 worlds)
• The Dearborn Confederation (22 worlds)
• About 20 independent worlds

You may notice that we started with 75 planets and now have 78. One of the things lost to edits was a note that during the Two Nations period, Schellenberg had discovered a few previously undiscovered worlds. The worlds are truly outliers. Most ships don't carry enough fuel to reach them. 

This era is really just setting the stage for what comes next.

A Break for Medieval Times

This week's post was going to be the next era in the Astral Web series. But my wife ended up taking Friday off and convinced me to do the same. Friday morning we were trying to decide what to do and I said "Let's go to Medieval Times!" She's never been, and I've been trying to arrange for us to go for years.

While the Lyndhurst, NJ location is a little closer, they were calling for big winter storms this weekend, so we opted for the Baltimore location instead. So we made some reservations and hopped in the car for a 7 hour drive. 

I've previously been to Medieval Times in Dallas, Chicago, Florida, and even this one before. I was pleased to see that they have updated the script, though. Also, in order to maintain social distancing the crowd was much smaller which made for a much more pleasant experience.

The show itself was as fun and hokey as ever. My wife loved it.