Long stairs is based on a gaming thread i came across bed ridden in abour 2012 where creators did some world-building to create a setting of modern special forces exploring a dungeon dimension through portals controlled in secret by governments in secret.
A reader of my blog was there and gotr to chat about what they liked and how his 5 year game had used lots of my content which was nice. I mostly get offers to join the Illuminati in my comments here now. Odly enough im wary of a person who in real world, believes im a spy which is silly as my cost of living is exceeding my income.
This and F*cking Fantasy Vietnam got me writing this blog.
It goes back to early d&d resource horror.
Players as Australian soldiers and recruited specialists who get a briefing of their secret tour through the Emu Flats nuclear test site in South Australia.
When Ive run this in the past I gave players four characters but my box of 1/72 soldiers on hand was ww1 light horsemen and only had 8 non horse riding minis. So I had 5 characters on the table at a time.
Players got a handout with their equipment (from Army Recruiting resource) and a briefing not to eat or have sex with anything in the dungeon. They were warned of monsters, intelligent xeno species, the self aware dungeon zone and the dangers of xeno methodology (magic). They spent a week training in the base camp doing petty camp labour before being selected for their first mission.
They were to hold a barricade in a long corridor and told to hold the line but retreat if anyone seriously injured. They were told orcs were swarming the area and the main forward base needed certain chokepoints guarded.
Everyone is zero level and has 6hp. A grenade is pretty dangerous and they have options to fire a ten shot burst with their Aug Styer rifles.
With restricted electronic access, they were bored guarding for a day. They barricaded their rear entry that should have been safe but that was fine.The second day they found a large mushroom and it smelled funny so they bagged and tagged it.
Later that day two men on guard watching the passage, one with night vision goggles, saw dozens of dog size spiders silently creep towards them.
This is where players discovered the drama of ammo, burst fire and taking a round to reload. As spiders swarmed, some fired single shot and others fired burses/ Some were lucky and wiped out spiders but they were spread out enough to waste bullets. Then they saw the cow size spiders. Someone threw a grenaide and discovered this is not the A-team and they all took cover as lots of spiders were blasted to bits. A few small spiders climbed over the barricade, and some men went hand-to-hand, and others shot at incoming spiders. A few emptied their clips so went for hand-to-hand.
After piles of blood and spiders were filling the tunnel and two men were bitten, they called by landline for orders and told to pull back and wait as their was an orc attack. While chatting, someone saw disturbances in spider blood like someone was walking so they threw a grenade.
Turned out they killed an invisible dark elf so they bagged him with spiders and and pulled back. Every grenade throw was a peril and players learned about the risk of grenades that miss might bounce.
They meyt a veteran squad who now bothered to talk to them and shot up wounded with anti venom. Back at HQ they were commended and the wounded hospitalised. Inteligence claimed the invisile dark elf planted the mushroom to draw in the trained spiders.
Next they were sent to map a newly claimed area under orc control and needed some new territory explored. They were given a passage and told take any turns and try to head back to the local base and retrace their steps if anything too risky.
They explored some passages and dealt with some traps. A room had a statue and a pie on a crate. A soldier shot a pie and it was just messy. It was warm and smelled really good and everyone saved their urge to eat some (if you eat it ou turn into a pie - see my d100 magic pies). The crate had hardtack biscuits, iron spikes and rope inside. The living statue attacked. Turns out burst fire on a single target is more effective and they had a close call but destroyed the construct. Some soldiers who pulled back restrained themselves with single shots so as not to kill their peers. They searched and found a secret door with a open treasure chest and a chair. A suspicious soldier shot the chest and it charged. They shot at it and pulled back, shutting the secret door. As it pounded, they pulled back again and left a grenaide. The mimic was blasted but still charged and they hosed it with bullets.
The chest looked partly like a real chest with meat and teeth splattered on the floor. They took samples and moved on.
Finally, they found stairs but worried the elevation took them higher than the route they planned. Found a chest with wierd elf gold coins and considered the cash value and if they were going to keep an unauthorised cache the were ordered not to. There was also filthy bedrolls and a simple map indicating they could get back to a huge chamber where allies controlled. They were wary of the map but willing to go on. They found heatless magic torches and took them and soldier tied one to his rifle.
Therer was a big double heavy door they opened and a passage with a drop in the floor with a rapid river flowing through ten feet across, with another double door. So they pulled down some other doors and made a bridge and as they were deploying it a 4m tall giant humanoid with a mallet charged in. It tried to jump, sensing the bridge would not hold but failed and caught the ledge. Before it could climb up the tea,m hosed it in the head with bullets and it fell into the water and was washed away.
The next room was a giant straw mat and turds, a huge locked iron maiden and another door. Their was a sword on a crate too. When a soldier picked it up it glowed blue and they guessed it was a good sword. The team engineer picked the lock and out came an undead horror. Guns did nothing. It cast spells at them, incurring a few. A silver bayonet wielded by the hand-to-hand specialist managed to hurt it so the creature drained him to unconsciousness. A soldier tried to grapple it, intending to stop it from casting but froze and fell. One soldier dragged the dying man away. Another soldier went down. The trooper with a sword had a swing and hurnt it and it cast light into his eyes blinding him. He dropped it and another trooper caught it and chased the fleeing undead horror but quit before losing sight of others.. Two men were unconscious, and one recovered enough to walk. Another was blind. They followed the tunnel warily behind the undead with the map and saw it open a door into the area held by allies. They heard burst fire and explosions and the undead was killed. The veterans finally spoke to the survivors and got them to HQ for treatment. Mysteriously over the next few days they became 1st level and became privy to better barracks and intel and equipment.
Went well exept the soldier mini situation and I had to be more careful and not kill as many as I would if the had four characters each. One player was an anthropologist and found setting very fascinating. The horror survival aspect shined.
I might try my Octopus princess adventure next con. I had lots of minis so they let me keep the same table so they were very flexible. I had another player down with fatigue but got a few walk ins so worked ok. I did run a short campaign of this in the past and the revelation of D&D monster ecology was a big element. A bit like Delicious in the Dungeon comic in some ways as monsters are not quite your classic Monster Manual. I will run one day again, but definitely need some more modern Australian infantry minis. Im also getting some dungeon doors made for me.
I look forward to the next con. I am a bit trashed and sore throated and had another home game today but I survived thanks to a nice meal made by a friend and good rest.
Im planning on a quiet week.
A reader of my blog was there and gotr to chat about what they liked and how his 5 year game had used lots of my content which was nice. I mostly get offers to join the Illuminati in my comments here now. Odly enough im wary of a person who in real world, believes im a spy which is silly as my cost of living is exceeding my income.
This and F*cking Fantasy Vietnam got me writing this blog.
It goes back to early d&d resource horror.
Players as Australian soldiers and recruited specialists who get a briefing of their secret tour through the Emu Flats nuclear test site in South Australia.
When Ive run this in the past I gave players four characters but my box of 1/72 soldiers on hand was ww1 light horsemen and only had 8 non horse riding minis. So I had 5 characters on the table at a time.
Players got a handout with their equipment (from Army Recruiting resource) and a briefing not to eat or have sex with anything in the dungeon. They were warned of monsters, intelligent xeno species, the self aware dungeon zone and the dangers of xeno methodology (magic). They spent a week training in the base camp doing petty camp labour before being selected for their first mission.
They were to hold a barricade in a long corridor and told to hold the line but retreat if anyone seriously injured. They were told orcs were swarming the area and the main forward base needed certain chokepoints guarded.
Everyone is zero level and has 6hp. A grenade is pretty dangerous and they have options to fire a ten shot burst with their Aug Styer rifles.
With restricted electronic access, they were bored guarding for a day. They barricaded their rear entry that should have been safe but that was fine.The second day they found a large mushroom and it smelled funny so they bagged and tagged it.
Later that day two men on guard watching the passage, one with night vision goggles, saw dozens of dog size spiders silently creep towards them.
This is where players discovered the drama of ammo, burst fire and taking a round to reload. As spiders swarmed, some fired single shot and others fired burses/ Some were lucky and wiped out spiders but they were spread out enough to waste bullets. Then they saw the cow size spiders. Someone threw a grenaide and discovered this is not the A-team and they all took cover as lots of spiders were blasted to bits. A few small spiders climbed over the barricade, and some men went hand-to-hand, and others shot at incoming spiders. A few emptied their clips so went for hand-to-hand.
After piles of blood and spiders were filling the tunnel and two men were bitten, they called by landline for orders and told to pull back and wait as their was an orc attack. While chatting, someone saw disturbances in spider blood like someone was walking so they threw a grenade.
Turned out they killed an invisible dark elf so they bagged him with spiders and and pulled back. Every grenade throw was a peril and players learned about the risk of grenades that miss might bounce.
They meyt a veteran squad who now bothered to talk to them and shot up wounded with anti venom. Back at HQ they were commended and the wounded hospitalised. Inteligence claimed the invisile dark elf planted the mushroom to draw in the trained spiders.
Next they were sent to map a newly claimed area under orc control and needed some new territory explored. They were given a passage and told take any turns and try to head back to the local base and retrace their steps if anything too risky.
They explored some passages and dealt with some traps. A room had a statue and a pie on a crate. A soldier shot a pie and it was just messy. It was warm and smelled really good and everyone saved their urge to eat some (if you eat it ou turn into a pie - see my d100 magic pies). The crate had hardtack biscuits, iron spikes and rope inside. The living statue attacked. Turns out burst fire on a single target is more effective and they had a close call but destroyed the construct. Some soldiers who pulled back restrained themselves with single shots so as not to kill their peers. They searched and found a secret door with a open treasure chest and a chair. A suspicious soldier shot the chest and it charged. They shot at it and pulled back, shutting the secret door. As it pounded, they pulled back again and left a grenaide. The mimic was blasted but still charged and they hosed it with bullets.
The chest looked partly like a real chest with meat and teeth splattered on the floor. They took samples and moved on.
Finally, they found stairs but worried the elevation took them higher than the route they planned. Found a chest with wierd elf gold coins and considered the cash value and if they were going to keep an unauthorised cache the were ordered not to. There was also filthy bedrolls and a simple map indicating they could get back to a huge chamber where allies controlled. They were wary of the map but willing to go on. They found heatless magic torches and took them and soldier tied one to his rifle.
Therer was a big double heavy door they opened and a passage with a drop in the floor with a rapid river flowing through ten feet across, with another double door. So they pulled down some other doors and made a bridge and as they were deploying it a 4m tall giant humanoid with a mallet charged in. It tried to jump, sensing the bridge would not hold but failed and caught the ledge. Before it could climb up the tea,m hosed it in the head with bullets and it fell into the water and was washed away.
The next room was a giant straw mat and turds, a huge locked iron maiden and another door. Their was a sword on a crate too. When a soldier picked it up it glowed blue and they guessed it was a good sword. The team engineer picked the lock and out came an undead horror. Guns did nothing. It cast spells at them, incurring a few. A silver bayonet wielded by the hand-to-hand specialist managed to hurt it so the creature drained him to unconsciousness. A soldier tried to grapple it, intending to stop it from casting but froze and fell. One soldier dragged the dying man away. Another soldier went down. The trooper with a sword had a swing and hurnt it and it cast light into his eyes blinding him. He dropped it and another trooper caught it and chased the fleeing undead horror but quit before losing sight of others.. Two men were unconscious, and one recovered enough to walk. Another was blind. They followed the tunnel warily behind the undead with the map and saw it open a door into the area held by allies. They heard burst fire and explosions and the undead was killed. The veterans finally spoke to the survivors and got them to HQ for treatment. Mysteriously over the next few days they became 1st level and became privy to better barracks and intel and equipment.
Went well exept the soldier mini situation and I had to be more careful and not kill as many as I would if the had four characters each. One player was an anthropologist and found setting very fascinating. The horror survival aspect shined.
I might try my Octopus princess adventure next con. I had lots of minis so they let me keep the same table so they were very flexible. I had another player down with fatigue but got a few walk ins so worked ok. I did run a short campaign of this in the past and the revelation of D&D monster ecology was a big element. A bit like Delicious in the Dungeon comic in some ways as monsters are not quite your classic Monster Manual. I will run one day again, but definitely need some more modern Australian infantry minis. Im also getting some dungeon doors made for me.
I look forward to the next con. I am a bit trashed and sore throated and had another home game today but I survived thanks to a nice meal made by a friend and good rest.
Im planning on a quiet week.
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