Tom McGrenery and I are pleased to present the newest episode of Fear of a Black Dragon! Our focus for this one is an adventure called “Into the Fire,” which was featured in the very first issue of Dungeon Magazine back in 1986.
This is a very important episode because Tom and I begin talking about how to convert old school modules to World of Dungeons, our system of choice on FoaBD. As such, the episode is a bit longer than normal and the timecodes are much more detailed. I think you’re going to find there is a lot of really valuable information here (and we also just have a lot of fun talking about the peccadillos of this particular module).
If you want to see how our version of Into the Fire played out, the YT playlist can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL26DVDSsqVz4MlXSz2RCs_pbgsD0f62NY
Enjoy!
http://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/fear-of-a-black-dragon/into-the-fire
Little bummed the gag at the end didn’t make the cut from the uncut Youtube version of this episode! 🙂
Great episode.
Little bummed the gag at the end didn’t make the cut from the uncut Youtube version of this episode! 🙂
Great episode.
Re random tables: You can easily fold the die of fate and random encounters into one comprehensive table e.g. a d8 table where 1 to 3 are signs of the creatures they might encounter or loot they dropped and 4 to 8 the actual encounter (with 8 being the alpha predator of a particular area).
Re monster hp: I’d rather have some monsters with a lot of hp and a weakness to exploit or even no apparent way to beat them. Maybe the players get creative and figure something out (fictional positioning!), maybe the characters have to run away or maybe they stay and die. Knowing when to run away is a valuable player skill that can only be learned if you don’t reward an instant kill on a high roll – unless the characters are likely to win anyway and you don’t want the fight to drag on.
Re random tables: You can easily fold the die of fate and random encounters into one comprehensive table e.g. a d8 table where 1 to 3 are signs of the creatures they might encounter or loot they dropped and 4 to 8 the actual encounter (with 8 being the alpha predator of a particular area).
Re monster hp: I’d rather have some monsters with a lot of hp and a weakness to exploit or even no apparent way to beat them. Maybe the players get creative and figure something out (fictional positioning!), maybe the characters have to run away or maybe they stay and die. Knowing when to run away is a valuable player skill that can only be learned if you don’t reward an instant kill on a high roll – unless the characters are likely to win anyway and you don’t want the fight to drag on.
So far, I’m liking ya’ll’s podcast! 🙂
So far, I’m liking ya’ll’s podcast! 🙂
Jacqueline Saunders Glad you like it!
Jacqueline Saunders Glad you like it!
Loved the section discussing how to convert to WoDu. It clearly inspired me, and now I’m watching your liveplay of the module and considering if I could use it to replace DCC as a system for the “Frozen in Time” funnel I’m running on Thursday.
Thing is, I haven’t GM’d a lot of fictional positional games, and I’ve never played in a WoDu game. Should I give it a go and see how I crash and burn? Not even bother?
And also, Jason Cordova, could I get a copy of the list of Flags you mention during the character introduction section?
Loved the section discussing how to convert to WoDu. It clearly inspired me, and now I’m watching your liveplay of the module and considering if I could use it to replace DCC as a system for the “Frozen in Time” funnel I’m running on Thursday.
Thing is, I haven’t GM’d a lot of fictional positional games, and I’ve never played in a WoDu game. Should I give it a go and see how I crash and burn? Not even bother?
And also, Jason Cordova, could I get a copy of the list of Flags you mention during the character introduction section?
Jason Cordova So you’re eliciting their flags with questions? Or did you offer them a list of flags to choose from?
I really like the way you got the players to expand their characters by asking them to describe their skills.
Something just seemed to click for me during that discussion you had with Tom. I’m ready to give it a go.
I’ve run the module before and I think they’re going to see a lot more of the cool stuff in motion than they ever would with pure DCC.
Jason Cordova So you’re eliciting their flags with questions? Or did you offer them a list of flags to choose from?
I really like the way you got the players to expand their characters by asking them to describe their skills.
Something just seemed to click for me during that discussion you had with Tom. I’m ready to give it a go.
I’ve run the module before and I think they’re going to see a lot more of the cool stuff in motion than they ever would with pure DCC.
Andrew Mayer Oh, my bad. I misread your comment. Here is the Flags doc: drive.google.com – Flags.pdf
Andrew Mayer Oh, my bad. I misread your comment. Here is the Flags doc: drive.google.com – Flags.pdf
Jason Cordova That’s fantastically useful. Thanks very much!
Jason Cordova That’s fantastically useful. Thanks very much!