3LBBs Character Record Sheet

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Castle Vorndrang Introduction and House Rules

As I was working on section 1D (which is ready from a week but I'm waiting to publish) I decided it was time to write up some kind of introduction for the Dungeon of Doom, and to decide on the rules to use once and for all. Since I want this dungeon to be used in the widest possible range of situation and for the widest possible range of players (from the reckless noob to the experienced grognard), I think that straight By The Book Whitebox OD&D is the way to go. After all, I can definitely see me using its rules as a base to easily convert the game to other systems (like B/X, Second Edition AD&D or even Pathfinder). Thus, here is the short introduction and some of the House Rules I'm planning to use. Enjoy!

"In ages past Castle Vorndrang has been one of the most prominent bastions of the Dwarfkin in the wild north. Ruled by the Clan Vorndrang it prospered for a thousand years, enduring the raids of the dire Goblins and the uncountable perils of the Underworld. Then, a couple of centuries ago, it fell under mysterious forces. It is not clear if the doom of the Dwarfs came from their own greediness, or if the Witchking of the nearby Realm of Zarhad helped in some measure. What is certain is that the Gates of Vorndrang were firmly closed, not to be reopened again. Until now. Careless of whatever eldritch power lies behind this inexplicable event, hordes of reckless adventurers have rushed in the nearby town of Hazen Hollow, attracted by the legendary hoards that presumably await in the deep dungeons beneath the keep. The few who returned from Castle Vorndrang alive carried immeasurable treasures and tales of horrors beyond the human comprehension. It is now your turn to descend into the unknown, and meet your fortune (or your fate) down in the bowels of Castle Vorndrang."

HOUSE RULES
Character Creation

• Determine Abilities rolling 3d6 straight down the line, modifiers work as per the 3LBBs with the following exceptions and modifications:
• STR > 14 is +1 To Hit and Damage for all;
• WIS > 12 is 1st level spell for Clerics;
• DEX > 14 is +1 To Hit (missiles) and +1 AC for all;
• Class Fighting-man, Magic-user or Cleric, Race Human, Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit. Elves can be Fighting-men OR Magic-users, Dwarfs can be Fighting-men or Clerics, Hobbits must be Fighting-men.
• Every character begins with 2d6x10 gp (Clerics must return unspent moneys to their church).

Skills
Roll 5+ on a 6-sided die to succeed in a skill-check. Racial modifiers, as well as heavy armor penalties apply according to the following table. Note that “armor penalty” only applies to regular armor, as magical ones are considered to be lighter and smoother.

Skill	Racial Modifier	Armor Penalty
Break doors/Lift bars	None	No
Climb rope	None	Yes
Find secret doors	Elves +2	No
Find traps*	Dwarves +2	No
Foraging and hunting	Elves +1	Yes
Hide	Halflings +2	Yes
Listen at doors	Humans -1	Yes**
Move silently/Surprise	Halflings +1	Negates
Read maps	None	No
Swim	None	Yes

*This include locating slanting passages, new constructions underground, pits, etc.
**”No” if the helmet is removed.

Note that this skill system works more or less as the one detailed in Volume III, if a bit modified. With regard to armor penalty medium metal (chainmail) is -1, heavy metal (plate) is -2. I didn't take ability modifiers to skill checks for a more 0e feel (if you know what I mean).

Combat
Works as detailed in the 3LBBs with the following exceptions:

• Maximum hp at 1st level. You can re-roll all of your HD at the start of every expedition.
• Initiative is either à la 3rd Edition (without Dexterity modifier, players have the possibility to re-roll after having declared their action every round) or B/X, according to the pool of players.
• If using d6 weapons, two-handed roll twice and go for the best but always act last no matter what initiative is rolled.
• Fight with shield is +1 to AC, Fighting-men can fight with two weapons with +1 To Hit and Damage.
• Knocked out at 0 hp, characters can go as negative as Level-1 before death. Magic-users and Clerics must roll against Intelligence/Wisdom if knocked out not to forget their spells.
• Bind 1-4 wounds after each combat, or stabilize a fellow at 1 hp. Potions of healing restore from 0 hp (i.e. a character at -3 who drinks a Potion of Healing and rolls 4 on the die awaken with 5 hp).
• Molotov cocktail: roll to hit, if miss roll d8 for random direction and d6x5' for random distance from the intended target, if critical miss (1 in 20) it blows up your face. d6 damage to target and d4 damage to anyone within 5'. Throw your lantern for d8/d6 damage.

As always, if you find anything wrong with my English just ask.

The Dungeon of Doom Level 1C: Beneath The Tower of Bones

The Dreadful Tower of Bones

I just want to point up that I never quite finished mapping and keying a level, and now I have three of them completed in four days of not-so-hard work for a total of 41 encounters. I take this fact as another proof the One Page Dungeon format really is a tool that fits my GMing style (at least when it comes to make some prep work). I really can't wait to see how it works during the game, although I feel really confident. By the way, it's with great pride that I present you the third section of the infamous Dungeon of Doom: Beneath The Tower of Bones (picture on the left courtesy of Zdzisław Beksiński - thanks to Jeremy for reminding me the name). You may notice that I made some little changes to the layout, by making the description box even more shorter so to make room for a proper Wandering Monsters table (as suggested by Brennan in his comment to the first section). I've also updated Level 1A and 1B to match the new style. To conclude, I'm sorry if any of you have experienced the "lack of map when download" issue with the previous entry - I still don't know why Google Docs messed it up that way, all I can tell is that right now the download is working just fine. As always, if you have critics and/or grammar errors to report, just leave a comment. Peace!

The Dungeon of Doom Level 1B: The Tenebrous Hall of Mirrors

I'm feeling pretty inspired those days, and the One Page Dungeon format really fits my legendary laziness. So here you are the second section of the first level of the dreadful Dungeon of Doom, The Tenebrous Hall of Mirrors! Also, I've made some minor and major changes to my previous effort (The Secret Pits), so give it a fresh look if you want. Finally, as many of you know, I'm not native English speaker, so I'd be very grateful to anyone reporting grammar/syntax errors.

I don't know when I'll be able to run a game in this new dungeon of mine, but the girlfriend is showing mild interest in this D&D thing I happen to like so much, so hopefully I'll get to run a game for her and maybe some other friends in the next few weeks. Let's just wait and see, I say.

My First One Page Dungeon

After several days of mapping, designing, thinking, and procrastinating, today I finally sat down and realized my very first OPD: The Secret Pits (The Dungeon of Doom Level 1A, click to download from Google Docs). A couple of consideration include:

• Mapping a 30x30 section is weird if you're not used to;
• Keeping the room count to 15-20 room is way better than going up to 30-50 (this might be related to my laziness in keying dungeons, BTW);
• I can't wait to see how the OPD works in actual gaming sessions.

My final design process went as follow: map in pencil, fill the room key (using the DMG) making minor adjustments, ink the map, scan the map, make adjustments in Photoshop and add numbers and letters, do the layout. The thing took two and a half an hour to complete, although I was watching a movie while inking so probably I could spend less time on it. Also, I can't help but need my maps to look fancy, so this probably made the process longer too. I would really like to hear your opinion on this, especially from anyone with more experience than I have with OPDs. If I ever get to map the other sections of this level, I promise to post them on the blog too!

Mapping Sarnath, Work In Progress

Sarnath, The Eternal City. The year 1417 After The Fall

This is but a rough sketch of the city center of Sarnath. I made it in Photoshop experimenting a bit with paths - it doesn't look very evocative, but it's really clear so I'm cool with it. It still misses a lot of features (notably the docks along the river, street names and important buildings, etc.) but you can see the blocks, the slave market (the big square in the far-east part of the west river section), the Citadel (the big isle), the University square (in the far east part of the east river section) and the Garden of Tsàzaar, a big mutated forest wildly grew out of a little greenhouse built by Rector Tsàzaar The One And Million Eyes over five hundred years ago for use of the Alchemy Faculty. (There lie many ruins of the old inhabitants of Sarnath, and such stuff as swamp-dwelling-debauched-savage-worshiper-of-long-forgotten-gods tribes. The usual suspects, you know.)

Uh No Wait I'm Not Dead At All

During the last (OMFG) two months I've:

• Found a part-time job at Linate airport here in Milan;
• Been dating a truly awesome girl from Florence;
• Been drunk most of the time (see above);
• Not played too much (again, see above);

But I'm alive, in good health, and Happy™. I also started working (lazy as usual) on Yaqqothl and the Doomed Wastelands again, and the metropolis of Sarnath in particular. I'm doing most of the notes on Word, although I think I'll be switching to Obsidian Portal soon. It's very likely that the Tower of Zordaz will be moved somewhere near the town, or perhaps even "in" the town - still musing on this. Be cool, see ya!