We arrived at the cabins several days ago, but I have been enjoying the time with my brothers, sisters and the extended family, so have been somewhat remiss in updating my blog. Here is a view of the cabins: most of them are obscured by foliage but you can see three cabins in this photo. There are three more cabins to the right (hidden by the trees) and two more to the left.
And here is a photo showing the lakeshore, taken in the opposite direction to the photo of the cabins. It has been a lovely couple of days, though the it has been cool and cloudy. Nevertheless, a cool day at the cabins beats a warm day in the city!We have played three Dungeons and Dragons sessions so far. We are using the Swords & Wizardry white-box rule-set, and played B2, Keep on the Borderlands for our first session. The result -- five players, seven PC deaths. Among the clues distributed to the players was the need for hirelings and the avoidance of the caves further into the canyon, both of which were ignored. Even with those clues, it is clear that Keep on the Borderlands is not a module in the old-school tradition of exploration and problem solving. This is hack-and-slashery personified. Every player has lost at least once character to this D&D meat-grinder. As a result, I have switched over to Michael Curtis' Stonehell Dungeon, for our subsequent sessions, as it seems to be more conducive to an old-school approach to adventuring.
4 comments:
I've been dropping some not-so-subtle hints to my own players over the last few weeks about the advantages of hirelings to group survival and humping treasure out of the dungeon but I, too, have been ignored. I've even gone so far as to buy and paint a large number of hireling miniatures, which I've shown to the group, who still haven't taken the hint.
I'm hoping that once they discover they only have room to carry a couple hundred gold pieces each, after accounting for all their dungeoneering gear, (how many torches did you say you were carrying?) they'll get the message.
I find that character deaths are far more inspirational.
After eveyone had lost one character each, they suddenly remembered and then hired the three mercenaries who, several days prior, were offering their services back at the Inn.
They had solved their tranportation problems earlier, having bought a mule and small cart.
Hanging out by the lake and doing some gaming. Man, that is pretty cool!
Looks like the perfect getaway!
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