Serpents of Chaos - Intro

Below is the email I sent out to my prospective players. I thought it best to share this without much editing, just to give the form and function of what our AD&D 1e Rules-as-Written game would look like. Not a lot was included in the way of content, but the "Serpents of Chaos" is a homebrew adventure, featuring a dungeon called the Cursed Chambers of Tsennacherib and a frontier town-fort named Svargorod. 

 

The style is classic swords & sorcery with a big steppe/mesopotamian/near-east influence. I don't have tons of free time on my hands, so sessions are planned to run every two weeks and I am trying to keep things terse when it comes to downtime roleplay. 

 

Frank Frazetta

 

Begin email:

"This is an invitation to a classic dungeon crawl. We will be delving into a 3-level, 100 room dungeon with lots of monsters, traps, and treasure. We will use Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1^st edition (1e). You will create 3 level 1 characters (the two extra are for quick and ready backups in case of death).

 

We will play across Discord. There will be no Virtual Table Top, and a map will only be provided by the dungeon master if absolutely necessary for combat. The party mapper will be creating the main map for the party's use.

 

The hope is that we will have a core group of about 3-5 players. A few others will join when they can. Drop-in play is welcome, if that is all you can commit to. 

 

To make play conducive to this ever-changing party of adventurers, we will end each session back in town. This means that if your player isn't delving the dungeon for a session, they will be missing out on great rewards, magic items, treasure, and XP. During the two weeks between sessions, downtime activities (healing, shopping, hirelings, rumours, etc.) can be conducted. It is expected that once we show up on game night, we are getting right into what we came for—the dungeon itself!

 

Below is a description of the gameplay principles of this dungeoncrawl.

Fantasy Adventure Gaming:

• Exploration. Poke at the world, turn over rocks, uncover secrets. The environment exists for you to peel apart.
• Gamist approach. This is a game first. All meaningful aspects of D&D flow from its mechanics. Roleplaying and dramatic acting are adornment, not the focus. A great description of what this means can be found on this blog.
• Emergent narrative. There is no grand "story" that I have planned. The story is the one that the players create at the table.
• Player skill. Play to win and to use every advantage you can. Apply strategy, forethought, and teamwork and the game will open up to you. This does not mean system mastery—the rules are something you will grok over time.

By the Book

• Rules as written, as much as possible.
• Only material from 1e PHB for character creation (remember this includes encumbrance, ration tracking, healing, etc).
• If the rules are overwhelming (AD&D 1e is a robust system!) I can create your characters for you and walk you through how to use the character sheet. Brand new players are very welcome!
• I will be handling most of the rule-learning, so do not worry too much about knowing much else than what you have to in order to create some characters. We will start out simple and gain mastery as we play.

One to One

• 1:1 downtime. Outside of game nights, in-game time passes at the same rate as real-world time. Downtime activities (hirelings, shopping, rumour-gathering) will be conducted between sessions.
• 1:1 xp for gold. For each piece of gold you bring back into town, you receive 1 experience point.
• 1:1 healing. One day (24 hrs) of rest will heal 1 hit point. Nonetheless, your character should be healed by next session even if they were reduced to 0 or less hp (every two weeks will heal 14 hp and most 1st-3rd level characters have less than that)."