Solo RPG Campaign 8b. Taking Stock

This is just a quick review of where the game has gone up to this point (I'm writing in July, but only covering sessions through May), and where I plan to go next. 

As I reminder, at the beginning of each session, I sync the in-game time with the real-world calendar and return to town at the end of each session. I try to keep my sessions relatively short and concise, but have not been able to finish them in one day. However many days I take to play them out will end up converted to downtime when their calendar catches up to mine at the beginning of the following session. 

Characters

The first three characters listed here (and the last two, now deceased) were converted from an original Basic Fantasy RPG game. Chadonius and Zephira are Lawful, while the others are Neutral. This isn't a comprehensive character sheet, but includes some of the highlights.

  • Chadonius I - Fighter-1
    • STR 18, CON & CHA 16, DEX 14
    • Diplomacy & Weapon and Shield Specialization
    • Spear & Shield, Heavy Helmet, recently acquired a Sword of Vermin-Slaying, and will receive chainmail before the next adventure.
    • Henchman: Beornwulf (Human Raider, Shortbow, Leather Armor, 1hp)
  • Marzipan "the Melifluous" - Elven Enchanter-1 (Occultist template)
    • INT 16
    • WIL 6
    • Uses a conversion of a class from an ACKS I supplement
    • Mastery of Enchantments & Illusions, Mystic Aura, Sensing Power, Occultism, Alchemy
    • Spells: Choking Grip, Beguile Humanoid, (and he acquires Slumber during the upcoming downtime)
    • Henchman: Wuldric (Human Raider, Spear, Leather Armor, STR 15, 6hp)
  • Edelweiss - Halfling Scout-1 
    • DEX 16, STR 15
    • CHA 6, INT 7
    • Short bow, Short sword
    • Hunting Dog
    • Custom class, similar to an Explorer
    • Tracking, Accuracy, Precise Shooting, Natural Stealth, Evasion
  • Radnor - Fighter-1 (Ravager template)
    • STR 16, INT 14
    • WIL 5
    • Great Axe & Chainmail
    • War Dog
    • Endurance, Berserkergang, Healing
  • Jelyssa - Thief-1 (Tomb Raider template)
    • DEX & WIL 14
    • STR 7
    • Short bow, short sword
    • Thief Skills, Tracking, Mapping
    • Will level-up to level 2 after the next adventure.
  • Zephira - Priestess-1 (Medician template)
    • WIL 15, CHA 14, STR 13
    • INT 5
    •  Healing, Lay On Hands-2
    • I am strongly considering downgrading Zephira to a henchman.
  • Timbo - Halfling Thief (BFRPG) DECESED 
    • Died to a Giant Crab Spider bite in session 2.
  • Grimace - Dwarven Cleric (BFRPG) DECEASED 
    • Died to a crushed jaw from a falling log trap in session 3.

Factions

The following is a brief summary of what is known of the factions that have emerged so far in game play. The two main human settlements that I have discovered are Sapperton and Marafeld, which have been retconned to be of the correct size to be chief settlement of their respective Counties. It is currently unknown whether these counties are within the same Duchy, or competing duchies.
  • Marafeld (220 families, either a class V? or class VI market)
    • Exports wine.
    • Run by a man named Mara.
    • Shipment last fall was raided by centaurs hired by Sapperton.
  • Sapperton (160 families, class VI market)
    • Located in the mountains.
    • Exports tea.
    • Maintains a nearby shrine with a corrupted dungeon beneath it.
    • Leader holds a grudge against Marafeld due to a lover's quarrel. (The exact nature of this is undefined, except that a Sapperton girl eloped with a man from Marafeld.)
  • Centaurs
    • Roam the plains between Marafeld and Sapperton
    • Generally friendly towards humans
    • Allied with Sapperton
    • Raided a wine shipment from Marafeld on behalf of Sapperton
  • Halflings
    • Unknown location and allegience, presumably near Sapperton.
    • Assaulted a trio of Ettercaps that had taken up residence near the shrine
  • Goblins
    • Had begun lairing in the first level of the mountain shrine dungeon.
    • Mostly massacred by the party, but a small gang of 5 escaped, perhaps to another goblin village elsewhere?

Adventures

In the fall of 2023, the party began in the village of Marafeld (1508), overhearing that a shipment of wine had been raided. They set out and discover that the raiders were a band of centaurs who had been hired by the village of Sapperton to the north (1405). The leader of Sapperton refuses to release the wine, as he has a beef with Marafeld over a Sapperton girl who eloped with a man from Marafeld. The party spends the night in the Sapperton prison, and the next morning is assigned the duty of clearing out a dungeon underneath the Mountain Shrine (1304) -- although, ironically, the shrine is actually located in the foothills of the mountains, not in the mountains themselves. In their first delve, they kill several cobras, but their thief dies to a giant spider. They then take the winter off from adventuring.

Coming back at the end of the winter, they join up with a new fighter and a new thief (Radnor and Jelyssa) to resume clearing out the dungeon under the mountain shrine. Unfortunately, this time they lose their dwarven cleric, who they would replace with the Priestess Zephira. Over the course of a few more delves, they discover that a trio of monsterous Attercops have made a new lair at their usual campsite. A short (ha!) time later, they encounter a meet of Halfling Bounders who are hunting the Attercops.

Next time they return to the dungeon, a band of goblins have taken up residence, and established a chthonic idol. The goblin war commences, lasting three sessions (from late March through April). The goblins take a farmer family hostage, and riddle the first level of the dungeon with pit traps. The party purchases some dogs and hires some henchmen from a band of raiders to assist them. Eventually they take out one gang after another, until the goblin chief panics and releases the farmer's children. The parents however, had already been killed, so they party massacres the goblins in response. Chadonius receives a magic sword of vermin slaying from the goblin chief.

I decided to go back through my notes to look at the amount of XP earned per adventure, and my rate of adventuring. XP numbers are listed as (monster XP + treasure XP)/(number of shares) = share size. I've also included a session that I played in June, which I haven't written a report for yet.
  1. (Fall 2023) Mara's Vineyard. (0 + 0) = 0 XP  (BFRPG+Mythic, mostly scene setting)
  2. (Fall 2023) Below the Mountain Shrine - (323 + 127)/4 ~ 112 XP
  3. (Feb 2024) Shrine Delve 2: Ferret Boogaloo - (75 +1,483)/5 ~ 311 XP 
  4. (2/23) Morlock of the Opera. (40 + 165)/5 ~ 41 XP
  5. (3/3) Wight Out, Wandering, and A Warm Fireplace. (40 + 1,835)/6 ~ 312 XP
  6. (3/18) Goblins Galore. (143 + 0)/6 ~ 23 XP
  7. (4/13) Rules of Engagement. (158 + 0)/7 ~ 22 XP
  8. (4/25-5/30) The Final Goblin Solution. (195 + 2,589)/7 ~ 397 XP
  9. (6/23) Upcoming Session, report yet to be written. (155 + 1,230)/7 ~ 197 XP
A few takeaways: First, although I played two adventures in February and March, from April on, I've only been averaging one per month (the second session in April spilled through most of May, and there has only been one adventure in June, and will likely only be one in July.

Second, these numbers definitely illustrate that there is more XP from treasure than from monsters. ACKS II explicitly recommends a 4:1 ratio of treasure to monster XP. I seem to be somewhat higher than that, but just looking at the goblin-lair arc, (sessions 6-8) the ratio is slightly higher than 5:1. Granted, I have been rolling some of my treasure rolls "with advantage" in order to try leveling faster, and I was probably also too quick to make the unique room in session 5 contain treasure.

Third, I have some pretty small XP numbers in some of those sessions (in the 20-50 range). Part of that is due to my larger party size, part of it is due to ACKS' small monster XP numbers (only 5 XP for a single goblin), and part of it is due to trying to keep my sessions short (with a platonic ideal of finishing an entire adventure in a session). Clearly, in order to up these numbers, I need to take more risks, play longer sessions, and use a smaller team. Longer adventures is in conflict with my goal of self-contained single-session adventures, but I am hoping that my system mastery has increased enough to make future adventures run more quickly. I may attempt timeboxing as one potential strategy to address this. I'm also considering making Zephira a henchman in the future, to slightly reduce the number of shares.

Plans

At this point, I have explored most of the first level of the Mountain Shrine (though there is still one unexplored hallway), and it seems certain now that I will NOT be able to level my party up here. One option would be to descend to the second level, where I know there is a Wight in waiting. This sounds risky to me. Another option would be to find another first-level dungeon.

So far, I have been doing all of these adventures in a "no-prep" style, meaning that I do not have a pre-determined map, either of the dungeon or of the overworld, nor a cast of pre-gen'ed NPCs. Even the stocking of dungeon rooms isn't determined until I listen at the door or enter the room. Nothing exists until my party specifically interacts with it. This works well enough, and I enjoy the sense of discovery that comes with it.

That said, ever since learning BFRPG, I have wanted to explore the "Olde Island Fortress" dungeon in the Morgansfort module, which is the starter module for BFRPG. Indeed, it was one of the things I was planning on doing in this campaign even before deciding to do the ACKS II conversion. Note that I will not be using the entire overland map from this module, just the one dungeon. This basically consists of a keyed map and a wandering monster table. I will be using the equivalent monster entries from ACKS, though.  I don't think there's much of a backstory behind the dungeon, but I have not read the module ahead of time (and do not plan to do so), because I don't want to spoil the discovery and exploration. This is an experiment -- partly because I haven't tried running modules before and I at least want the experience, and partly just to see how feasible it is to run modules in a solo manner. 

Thus, the upcoming session 9 listed above is my first delve into the Olde Island Fortress (1508), which took place in June. But before we get to that, we have to take care of some downtime from the month of May.

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