Quantum Dungeons Preview 4A

Well, I was planning to wrap up the series, but then two new drafts appeared in rapid succession, so I guess I’m doing a little more playtesting.

Notes on the New Draft

Changes that I noticed include:

1. Human 1st level characters may choose only a single Talent. Non-humans may choose no talents.

2. QD AC is renamed “DV” (Defense Value).

3. Two sample Patrons for priests.

4. A paragraph on Alignment.

5. A short section on 0-Level NPCs.

6. A rudimentary random NPC generator.

7. Simple solo-play rules.

8. An appendix converting Ability Checks and Saving Throws to QD Skills.

9. An appendix converting damage dice.

10. An appendix converting magic item bonuses:

    • +1 weapons can hit monsters immune to ordinary physical attacks
    • +2 weapons and above also grants Advantage to hit.
    • Magical armor grants no additional protection but ignores encumbrance.

On Armor

I have my own house rules on magical armor and weapons. I’m undecided whether to keep mine – as usual, they’re more complicated – or just use the “official” rules. Or I might retool my rules into more powerful magic items.

On Patrons

Patrons are less powerful and influential than I expected. The two sample ones grant abilities only at levels 1, 4, and 8.

For my own amusement I thought I’d put together my own “Patrons” – Law, Chaos, Nature, and Death – but couldn’t decide what to add. The examples give some guidance, but also seem to narrow the powers of priests to a few benefits.

Creating New Characters

This last module is an AD&D module for “characters level 8 to 12”. I’m not sure how this translates to Quantum Dungeons characters, since QD only goes up to Level 10, but I’ll start at 8, the “Epic Hero” level, and see what happens.

At 8th level, human characters have 8d6+Physical Stamina, 7 Skill Points, and four Talents. Non-Human characters have the same, but one less Talent to compensate for their non-human abilities.

These will be my new characters:

About Aldis

Aldis is a Priest of the War God, and 8th level. This gives him the following powers:

• Gains Advantage on Social throws to command others in battle.
• May bless one weapon per day; blessed weapons can damage creatures otherwise immune to mundane weapons.
• May sanctify one weapon per day; sanctified weapons can damage creatures otherwise immune to mundane weapons and gain Advantage on attack and damage rolls.

Aldis usually sanctifies his own sword when he strides into battle, and blesses that of another who accompanies him into battle, usually Gerfast.

About Sresk

According to the rules, Lizard-Kin are

humanoids evolved or uplifted from lizards. Their unarmed damage is 1d6+Physical rather than just Physical. Lizard-Kin with the Martial Artist talent have advantage on unarmed damage. Beginning from level 4, they are so fierce that their unarmed attacks may harm creatures otherwise vulnerable only to magical weapons.

About Yves

By taking Sorcerer four times, Yves can use spells up to 4th Circle. Each successive circle is harder to cast. For convenience I’ll list the target numbers of each spell rather than the Circle.

His spells are Respite (6+), Shield (6+), Danger Sense (7+), Paralysis (7+), Convalescence (8+), Fireball (8+), Paralyze Monster (9+), Wizard Eye (9+).

Note on Solo Module Running

This module, like all the others, I run solo. I’m probably doing solo play backwards: I’m the DM / GM / QM / whatever, and I roll oracles for the player characters when the next action is not obvious.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

This time I’m using an AD&D adventure, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, by a Mr. Gary Gygax. It’s a convention module that assumes 15 characters, but I’m going to see if I can manage with six high-level characters. I’ve seen it played (partially), but I’ve never read through the entire thing, so it’s going to be mostly a surprise for me.

A big Thank You to Goodman Games, who published Expedition to the Barrier Peaks as part of their “Original Adventures Reincarnated” series. The maps and explanations are clearer in their version than in the PDF of Mr. Gygax’s original.

The Situation

The Duchy of Geoff (sic) has suffered mysterious attacks on a walled town and four smaller fortresses near the Barrier Peaks. The attackers, from the decomposed bodies found near each attack, appear to be some sort of unknown species of humanoid monsters.

When the Grand Duke assembled an expedition of 15 adventurers, unconfirmed reports alleged that monsters had issued from a gated cave framed with metal. No one has yet managed to enter the cave.

The Grand Duke and other dignitaries request information about the cave and any denizens therein. The expedition, including our six players, have traversed the area between the Grand Duke’s castle and a baron’s still intact fortress, and have now found a shadowed dell within sight of the aforementioned cave.

So our adventurers set out, Aldis and Gerfast in front, Sresk and Dain behind, Yves and Jack in the rear, followed by nine more adventurers (to be determined) and a small contingent of bearers and hirelings.

Entering the “Cave”

When the party approaches, the doors to the large cave are shut. However, keen eyes discern that a smaller portal several dozen feet above is open. It’s accessible by climbing up some steep rocks.

The Group Leader – let’s call him Rolf – decides to send our six adventurers in first and have them report back within the hour.

From Rolf’s perspective, as soon as the advance party enters, the outer door shuts.

From our six adventurers’ perspective,

When the party enters they will see a metal room, about 18’ deep and 20' wide, with a curving south (rear) wall. At that moment, the outer door will silently shut, and the 20’ wide inner door will part to reveal the 60’ by 60' entry area with [an open cylindrical structure].

Yves lights his lantern – the interior is dark – and the party begins to look around, hands on weapons. There appears to be a corridor to the left (west), a corridor to the right (east), and a corridor past the cylindrical structure going straight (north) … in addition to the hole within the cylindrical structure. Each of the corridors is lined with archways that could be doors, but with no visible handle or knob.

After some discussion, the party decides to go straight ahead.

After about 60 feet, they come across double doors on either side. They choose the left doors first.

The Game Room

This room is filled partly with broken machinery, and partly with glowing boxes with bright lights flashing and a cacophony of muted sounds: voices, metallic rattling sounds, and noises the party has no reference for.

After a few tense moments, the party relaxes enough to hunt around for something to loot – they are adventurers and heroes – but find nothing. Someone, or several someones, have clearly been here long before them. They depart.

The Lounge

This room is dark, like the hallways, but in the dim light they can see fragments of what was probably furniture or more machines like the ones across the hall. This room looks thoroughly looted, and partially burned besides, but the party rummage around to see if they can find something the previous looters missed.

Apart from some unexpected human-like bones, their thorough search turns up three pieces of jewelry worth a total of 6,000 gp, Score!

The party leaves this room.

The First Encounter

As the party leaves the lounge they are surprised by a dozen short creatures whose mottled bodies blend into the scenery, and four dog-like creatures that seem to be trained to attack.

Note: I’m just giving the Quantum Dungeons statblock, since the AD&D one is too long and mostly irrelevant

Initiative

• Sresk (12)
• Aldis (11)
• Gerfast (10)
• Vegepygmy Group (10)
• Dain (9)
• Jack (8)
• Yves (7)

Round 1 (Surprise for VPs)

Party:

Opponents:

• The Vegepygmies swarm the group, with 2 for each party member:
  • VP #1 (1 HD) hits Aldis, which he blocks.
  • VP #2 (1 HD) misses Dain.
  • VP #3 (1 HD) critically hits Gerfast for 6 points.
  • VP #4 (1 HD) hits Jack for 2 points.
  • VP #5 (1 HD) misses Sresk.
  • VP #6 (1 HD) misses Yves.
  • VP #7 (2 HD) misses Jack.
  • VP #8 (2 HD) misses Sresk.
  • VP #9 (2 HD) hits Yves for 4 points.
  • VP #10 (3 HD) critically misses Dain and breaks his spear.
  • VP #11 (3 HD) hits Aldis for 4 points.
  • VP #12 (4 HD) misses Gerfast.
  • Dog Creature #1 critically misses Gerfast and takes 2 damage. (Just because)
  • Dog Creature #2 misses Aldis.
  • Dog Creature #3 misses Dain.
  • Dog Creature #4 hits Sresk, which he blocks, but the thorns growing out of the creature’s body still prick him for 4 points of damage. (I think that’s how that’s supposed to work.)

Round 2

Party:

Opponents:

• Sresk rips into the largest creature with his claws, but it eludes him.
• Aldis takes a moment to sanctify his sword.
• Gerfast lays into a small Vegepygmy with both hammers, missing once but scoring a palpable hit with the other. The creature takes 6 damage and falls. In a frenzy Gerfast lashes out at another one, but misses.
• The Vegepygmies and dog creatures counter-attack:
  • VP #1 (1 HD) is out.
  • VP #2 (1 HD) misses Aldis.
  • VP #3 (1 HD) misses Dain.
  • VP #4 (1 HD) hits Jack for 5 points.
  • VP #5 (1 HD) misses Sresk.
  • VP #6 (1 HD) misses Yves.
  • VP #7 (2 HD) critically hits Jack for 6 points.
  • VP #8 (2 HD) hits Sresk, which he blocks.
  • VP #9 (2 HD) misses Yves.
  • VP #10 (3 HD) misses Dain with his claws.
  • VP #11 (3 HD) misses Aldis.
  • VP #12 (4 HD) hits Gerfast, which Gerfast blocks.
  • Dog Creature #1 hits Gerfast for 1 point of damage, but fails to penetrate Gerfast’s armor with his thorns
  • Dog Creature #2 hits Aldis, which he blocks with his sanctified blade.
  • Dog Creature #3 misses Dain.
  • Dog Creature #4 hits Sresk. doing 2 points of damage, plus another 5 points of damage with his thorns.
• Dain draws his axe and hacks at the smaller Vegepygmy in front of him, doing three points of damage.
• Jack draws his machete and hacks at the smaller Vegepygmy in front of him, but can’t get through its tough hide.
• Yves backpedals back into the lounge, exclaiming “Follow me, I have an idea!”

Round 3

Party:

Opponents:

“Do what the sorcerer says,” Aldis says in his booming God of War voice.

• Sresk moves to cover the sorcerer, and takes another swing at the larger (2 HD) Vegepygmy in front of him. This time he connects, doing 9 damage, more than enough to take it out.
• Aldis takes a swing at the larger (3 HD) Vegepygmy in front of him, but despite his consecrated blade he still can’t get through its hide.
• Gerfast curses but follow Sresk’s lead, aiming both hammers at the largest (4 HD) Vegepygmy while covering for the sorcerer. One blow bounces but the other one deals a solid hit, doing only 2 points or damage.
• The Vegepygmies and dog creatures counter-attack:
  • VP #1 (1 HD) is out.
  • VP #2 (1 HD) hits Aldis, which he critically fails to block, taking 1 point of damage.
  • VP #3 (1 HD) misses Dain.
  • VP #4 (1 HD) misses Jack.
  • VP #5 (1 HD) misses Sresk.
  • VP #6 (1 HD) misses Gerfast.
  • VP #7 (2 HD) hits Jack for 6 points.
  • VP #8 (2 HD) is out.
  • VP #9 (2 HD) hits Sresk for 6 points of damage.
  • VP #10 (3 HD) hits Dain with his claws, which Dain fails to parry for 1 point of damage.
  • VP #11 (3 HD) hits Aldis for 4 points of damage.
  • VP #12 (4 HD) hits Gerfast, which Gerfast blocks.
  • Dog Creature #1 misses Gerfast.
  • Dog Creature #2 hits Aldis, doing 4 points of damage but failing to penetrate his armor with its thorns.
  • Dog Creature #3 hits Dain, doing 3 points of damage plus 5 points with its thorns.
  • Dog Creature #4 hits Sresk. doing 3 points of damage, plus another 6 points of damage with his thorns. Sresk is OUT.
• Dain pulls back, taking the stricken Sresk with him.
• Jack pulls back, covering his retreat.
• Yves casts Respite on Sresk, returning him to full Stamina but leaving a Wound.

Round 4

Opponents:

• Sresk revives, and helps guard the door.
• Aldis takes another swing at the largest Vegepygmy, this time landing a blow which does 6 points of damage. He then retreats to the door.
• Gerfast aims two hammers at the largest Vegepygmy, and barely misses with both. He, too, then retreats.
• Only a few Vegepygmies can attack through the door, namely the three biggest. A second rank jabs with spears, but since they’re short spears they do nothing.
  • VP #10 (3 HD) hits Sresk with his claws, which he parries bare-handed, taking 1 point of damage.
  • VP #11 (3 HD) hits Aldis, which he parries.
  • VP #12 (4 HD) hits Gerfast with a critical success, doing 6 points of damage.
• Dain aims an arrow at the biggest Vegepygmy, hitting but doing only 1 point of damage.
• Jack throws a knife at the largest Vegepygmy, and misses.
• Muttering a dark incantation, Yves casts Fireball in the room behind the Vegepygmies, just barely out of range of the door’s defenders. The blast does 24 damage.
  • Even if they managed to dodge, Vegepygmies #1 - #6 would be killed instantly
  • Vegepygmies #7-#9 might survive if they dodge, but are almost certainly down.
  • Vegepygmy #10 makes his Stealth throw to dodge, which only means it’s down but survives.
  • Vegepygmy #11 fails its Stealth throw, and dies.
  • The weakened Vegepygmy #12 also fails its Stealth throw, and dies.
  • Of the four doglike creatures, one fails its Stealth throw and dies. The other three succeed, and take only 12 points of damage apiece. Severely wounded and without their masters, they flee.

Round 5

• The rest of the party is stunned, from the blast and from the devastating after-effects. The doors of the noisy room across the way are blown off, and several more noise machines are wrecked.
• Yves calmly casts Convalescence on Sresk, which removes his Wound.

Rounds 6-10

• Yves casts Respite on the rest of the party, which brings them back to full Stamina.

Triage

No member of the party needs Triage anymore.

The party continues on.

Unnoticed by the other members of the party, the sole surviving Vegepygmy, in need of four days rest, limps away, back to its home base.

Comments

• Expedition to the Barrier Peaks may have been a poor choice. It’s harder to split my perspective between what I have to know as a DM / Referee / etc. and what characters in a pseudo-medieval fantasy realm would know. There’s also a lot of terminology and concepts to master. Then, of course, there are the illustrations for all the new and weird things in the game, which I hope I’m using in a way consistent with Fair Use.

  However, I’ve liked the idea of EttBP since I first saw a part of it being played. The insertion of science fiction into a fantasy setting captured my young imagination.

• The 5e translation of this module asked for Wisdom checks to search the room properly, but I decided to kick it old school and assume experienced adventurers wouldn’t need a check to loot a room. They’d naturally check between cushions, dig through wreckage, and generally toss a room like professionals.

  Because of the thorough room tossing, I rolled for random encounters and got Vegepygmies waiting outside. Plus it was time for some action.

• Searching each lounge turns up random loot, including the key cards needed to access most of the other rooms on this floor. I realize this was a convention module, but to my modern RPG brain leaving a a key clue – literally – up to random chance doesn’t sit well with me. There are only two other lounges on this floor that I see, which means two more chances for a 1 in 3 chance of getting some sort of key card.

• The Vegepygmies were listed as AC 4, and the dog-like creatures as AC 3. That’s way too tough for creatures of 1-6 HD. Lucky our sorcerer can cast Fireball with relative ease.

• To those who might protest casting Fireball blind, I will quote the relevant draft rules:

  Fireball (Far): a ball of fire erupts at a point designated by the caster, causing 5d6 damage to all creatures within Close range of it. The fireball may ignite flammable materials. A successful Stealth 8+ throw halves this damage.

  Nowhere does it say the caster has to have eyes on the point where the Fireball erupts.

• We’re still only on the first page of the key to the first level, in the original module. We’re not even to the “numbered encounters” yet. This adventure may take a while.

Next Time

Next time we continue the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.