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Dyson Logos wrote:While I was once a fan of the Keep and the Caves, I find that the caves themselves are not conducive to fun low-level play for most players. The rest of the adventure is AWESOME, but the caves just don't do it for me anymore. SOME of the caves I love, but there's just too much cave, not enough chaos.

Its some nostalgia & fond memories. The Caves are a bit of a grind. Kick the door in & fight, sleep spell, etc. But it was made 30 years ago.

Your remake of the Caves is great.

I love this module, even though it has killed dozens of player characters.

Thoth Amon's method of having the players roll up several characters, is a great way to go.

I'll probably run it as a PBP game here again.

by_the_sword wrote:I love this module, even though it has killed dozens of player characters.

Thoth Amon's method of having the players roll up several characters, is a great way to go.

It is. I warned the players from the start that the adventure is going to have a long body count and to not get attached to their characters right away. Now that they have some characters who are 3rd level, they have gotten attached and seem to be happy that they survived, rather than expecting they would.

Blood axe wrote:I'll probably run it as a PBP game here again.

I would love to play in it. I have never done PbP, should be a fun experience.

Im recruiting for a PBP game here of The Keep. Check the Gamer Gatherings.

Why don't you guys get together and make your own version?

Make the Keep bigger and badder. Make the Caves very Chaotic, Make the wilderness map wild!

I have put quite a bit of time into this module during the last few months; remapped the caves and split them up all over the map, added several more lairs, made the wilderness map into a hex map to make it easier to run with wilderness rules and expanded it to 2 pages by 2 pages. Also added a village and expanded several of the lairs and hinted at plots, begged, borrowed, stole and made up hooks galore. Basically made it to run as a series of mostly short adventures. I also mapped the Cave of the Unknown and hidden passage under the Guildhouse, connected them to the Shrine of Evil Chaos and made a dungeon prison under the fortress part of the keep and connected it to the hermit who is now a watchman for a chaotic thieves guild. After months of prep... I am finally running it.

Been fun but even with spreading dungeons out to reduce the chance of bumbling into places of extreme danger, we have still lost: Three thieves, two in back to back rooms, five dwarves, three halflings, four magic-users, three elves, and two clerics (strangely, the players don't believe fighters are worth doing so not one has been rolled up). They have wiped out; the Chaotic Fighters, who managed to spot the hiding halfling that was spying on them and ambush the party resulting in all but two of eight killed, one of two goblin clans, an additional ogre in an expanded lair with several traps and a few pets, and are almost done with an evil tomb that I added to the "Mound" hill just south of the road. The "Mound" is based off the Moche mud brick pyramids, and has proved to be pretty exciting.

We have one original character an elf who is about half way to 2nd level, and a halfling and magic-user that have been around since the second excursion that are less that 200xp and 700xp from leveling. It has been a lot of fun but wow do characters die. Characters are 3d6 in order, gold has been either rolled as per the book or inherited from character to character, everyone is pretty well equipped now, HP are half a max plus roll half dice. So a fighter (or dwarf) is 4+1d4 hp to start.

Current party Elf, 2 halflings, cleric, and a magic-user that has godlike luck with thrown daggers. Three players lost characters in the last session and haven't replaced them yet.

With the huge number of melee combats, front line warriors don't have much of a chance.

It's funny you bring up luck. Luck with my group is based more on player than on character - and it has nothing to do with skill.

My wife has the worst luck - her characters drop like flies and it is because of either bad rolls on her part, good rolls on mine, or when something will affect a random party member, it is nearly always a character of hers.

Another player, on the other hand, has insanely good luck. Whether playing D&D or another system (we've played Space 1889 and Savage Worlds with the majority of the current group), she always has great luck. She cannot remember what game we are playing week-to-week, she barely pays attention to the game at all, and yet, her characters always survive and prosper.

It amuses me.

Thoth Amon wrote:She cannot remember what game we are playing week-to-week, she barely pays attention to the game at all, and yet, her characters always survive and prosper.

Of course the best way to stay alive is not to care!

We blame the luck on Snick not his player. He had to hire a dagger bearer to carry a supply of daggers for him. His hit rate is over 70% since we started tracking it, and he has a 10 dexterity.