The new forum software is pretty cool! Welcome back everyone. I’m really excited to get started in a threaded discussion format that isn’t reddit. Nothing personal against reddit, it’s just not my thing.
One thing that sets Torchbearer apart from the other games by BWHQ is that it works best with site-based adventures, and that means that it works great with modules. And while modules aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, there’s no denying that (for those who do enjoy them) a persistent threaded discussion forum can be absolutely invaluable.
There’s nothing quite like being able to chat with other GMs who have run the same module. They can share stories about common player responses, how to patch plot holes, or even just really awesome additions and expansions they want to share.
I’d love to see some active discussion of Torchbearer-specific modules and conversions here, as I know there was some back in the earlier life of the forums.
Share your own thoughts about what you’re excited to do with the new forums!
I’m looking forward to running Skogenby at the UK Games Expo this summer.
I ran it for a friend the other night. Solo. I said it was a bad idea but he tried. He made a Halfling Burglar, and with the fresh condition he managed to drive off a pair of skeletons but was injured.
He collected up a torque and the arm ring and made camp but unfortunately after rats spoiled his rations and he’d sucked up his wound he was ambushed by the slime whilst foraging for food.
Barely escaping that he tried to guess how do the immortality ritual and all but invited Hathor Vash to possess him. He kept his wits but at the cost of exhaustion. He fled back to town.
We epilogued the rest, Jora was never found, the killings continued, and the law defied anyone from interfering again. He just about got away with the arm ring but had to use the torque to bribe the town into letting him leave.
I’m tempted on getting the other adventures but I don’t have the group these days, plus we’re expecting our first kid this summer so really it’s a dying dream by this point.
I’ve recently run my group through Under the House of the Three Squires and The Dread Crypt of Skogenby.
Amusingly, we finished Squires in about four sessions, which I think is pretty standard. Skogenby was about eight sessions, which surprised me! Usually we play through it much more quickly. This time, the undead plague spread (ghouls and zombies of the recently slain infesting the countryside) because they waited to address it, so it was quite a bit more challenging this time around! The players opted to return all the treasure and build a shrine to the occupant of the crypt, including an annual offering.
The characters are now on the road to Highwater. It’s not clear yet whether they’ll decide to investigate The Secret Vault of the Queen of Thieves or another adventure.
I’m not much into the written modules for Torchbearer, but I’m certainly looking forward to more tools and discussion in regards to interesting content generation - stuff like tables for towns, magic items, interesting settings, I’d love to see some carousing tables specific to TB, and whatever else folks come up with. I generally run an on-the-fly hexcrawl that I’ve had great success in running.
I am interested in conversion notes (monster stats, obstacles, etc.) for some of the great one page dungeons out there, like those from Michael Prescott over at http://blog.trilemma.com/.
I am also interested in creating a sharing a bunch of monsters. I have been trying, off and on, to get back into drawing for a couple of years and might try my hand here. Creating a monster and then illustrating it and posting both somewhere might help with that. I have a couple of monsters that I designed for Dungeon World (The Sword Breaker Skeleton and The Master of Blood) that I would like to convert to Torchbearer as I think that would be a good exercise and I have also been looking at a bunch of monsters and creatures from German mythology that I’d like to tackle (wild men, moss maidens, forest mother, huckups, etc.).
I’d also like to create and share magical items.
Above all, I’d like to explore the game and increase my understanding on how to play it successfully with a group.
Glad to be back! I have never run Torchbearer, although I have had the book since 2014 (Real Life and Other Things intruded…)
I have recently acquired Middarmark, which must be one of the best setting books I have read in the last 30 years of my gaming career!
I am still undecided though if I want to go with Middarmark as a setting, or with something simpler (e.g. converting an old B/X scenario), at least until we are more familiar with the rules. I wouldn’t want to “spoil” the setting by a potentially negative gaming experience (due to how we play the game).
Actually, I’d be interested in other people’s opinion about the porting of B/X (or other D&D versions) scenarios to TB; perhaps this is worth opening another thread.
I am still undecided though if I want to go with Middarmark as a setting, or with something simpler (e.g. converting an old B/X scenario), at least until we are more familiar with the rules. I wouldn’t want to “spoil” the setting by a potentially negative gaming experience (due to how we play the game).
Actually, I’d be interested in other people’s opinion about the porting of B/X (or other D&D versions) scenarios to TB; perhaps this is worth opening another thread.
As much as I love Middarmark, I prefer the setting of early D&D as well. When converting old B/X stuff, I just do it on the fly, referencing the skills chapter and enemies chapter as needed. If someone loots something, just have them roll on the TB loot tables instead. Stuff like that.
Two years ago I started a B/X campaign, so I designed a prologue scenario, which led to B5 Horror on the Hill, which was supposed to lead to B10 Night’s Dark Terror. Unfortunately I had a TPK early in B5, so we agreed we would return to the scenario with new PCs, which would have as their mission finding out what happened to the previous group. I thought that since roughly a month (in campaign time) would have passed between the previous PCs’ expedition and the start of the new campaign, Guido’s Fort would have been overrun by goblins, making it a sort of “Three Squires” scenario (which I might steal wholesale.) However this means the PCs wouldn’t have a nearby Town to which to retire, which could make the scenario potentially lethal.
So I have a potential TB campaign on hand; I’d have to write the B10 region in terms of TB settlements (perhaps using GAZ1 as additional reference material.)
I am interested in your experience/opinion about any pitfall/problems I should look out for? Which classic scenarios did you run?