Beginnings

The Fenrecz Campaign came to be after reading Vornheim and being inspired to try my hand at large-city adventuring, ably assisted by the charts in that marvelous book. Things worked out reasonably well, with the geography (both actual and metaphysical) developing over the course of play sessions, taking my sketched out frameworks and providing some muscle and sinew to fill in the gaps. Some things fell by the wayside that I'd like to work back in at some point (for one, The Warrens as an especially haunted area -- I have the beginnings of a relatively complex Ghost Encounters table that I'd like to get done sometime soon); however, the experience that I've gained from these adventures have made we wonder about starting NPCs in a large city right off the bat.

I say this because one aspect of playing in Fenrecz was that it was really difficult to get the players out of the city -- in fact, I never managed it all, despite numerous hooks that led outside of the city walls. Now, it should be mentioned that this isn't necessarily bad in that if a party really wants to stay entirely within a city the entire time, they should be allowed to in the sense that a true sandbox game goes where player decisions take it and no further. On the other hand, it does lead to one major difficulty, which was that the players were stuck between the city being familiar and alien.

Since the campaign had only ever taken place inside this giant city, it felt unnatural for the players to be newcomers to it, even if that were most of their character backgrounds. This was exacerbated by one of the players asking for a background that would have placed him in the city previously -- so we had a theoretical knowledge imbalance and a practical lack of imbalance that felt like it shouldn't be even as it made logical sense.

Now, I'm sure that a more experienced or more skilled DM could have dealt with this in an elegant fashion. With our group, it wound up making sessions awkward as the players weren't sure to what degree they should be familiar with the city -- the solution, it seems to me, is to start a campaign off in a hamlet or such, a smaller settlement outside of the core cities of the surrounding area. This way, the players can still have a game that centers around a big city -- they just have to make the decision to travel there first. And, in theory, a party would be just as likely to go for dungeon- or wilderness-based adventures, without the draw of a city with conceivably everything they could desire contained within (and, probably just as importantly, full of inns and other "safe" places that are always within easy reach).

The Storm Tower

The Storm Tower is one remnant of the long-gone civilizations of the past, people far more advanced than live today and whose creations lie scattered across the wilderness areas of the world in various states of decay. In this case, the Storm Tower is a nearly-intact tower whose top is always surrounded by a swirling, lightning-filled storm cloud (hence the name). Standing in the middle of a large surrounding pit (into which, if light allows, you can see, sometimes making out large support beams/connecting tunnels coming off of the main tower and into the earth) of indeterminate depth and fashioned out of a coruscating orange and red metal that is impervious to damage, the Tower has become the home base for its self-styled Lord.

Albrecht of the Peaks was a fairly successful dwarven trader working the relatively safe roads between the Snow Peak fortress and Fenrecz when he woke one chill morning with a idea burning bright. Gathering a group of toughs and ne'erdowells, he cleared out the bandit- and monster-infested lower levels of the Storm Tower and set up shop in the cavernous main hall that lies across the deceptively thin bridge running from the edge of the pit to the Tower itself.

The main income from this venture came from those seeking fame and fortune in the Tower -- now such parties of adventurers would have to pay a small fee to enter into the Tower and an additional fee to gain entrance to either the higher levels above those Albrecht had cleared out (or a smaller fee to head into the depths of the Tower). In return, Albrecht offered a safe area where the adventurers could camp out on the floor or pay a few coins to stay in the recently built Lightning and Gold Inn. With additions of a blacksmith and a leatherworker and others following them, a small-ish town has been set up inside the Tower, with the level above it taken up with Albrecht's court and the level below as the dungeons for this community, now policed by Albrecht's original hired fighting men, who make a decent living on the side by hiring themselves out to parties eager for extra muscle or somebody with previous knowledge of the Tower both above and below.

Rumors, Allegations and Adventure-style Hiring Practices

- The staff at the Buggering Bear will let slip at some point about the disappearance of Ol' Rom, who used to clean up around the place. Further questioning will lead to the employees and regulars clamming up unless they start to trust an individual and have a chance to talk to them alone (will happen easier if they've had a few on the party as well). Then they will reveal that Ol' Rom was taken away by the Lord after he was heard to be spreading rumors about the Lord's men capturing a dwarf who had come up from below.

Indeed, both Ol' Rom and a mysterious dwarf are being held in the Lord's dungeons. Nobody's paying much mind to Ol' Rom; however, the dwarf is constantly being visited by the Lord personally, along with his Torturer.

- The Five Aces, a six-person strong adventuring band, lurks in the level above Albrecht's offices. They will not attack anybody on first entering the Tower's upper levels, instead they will observe the party in secret and will have various alarms/traps set after the party moves further upward in the hope of setting an ambush when the party returns.

- The Diviner Osios had laid camp in the main hall of the Tower, waiting for a group brave enough to sign on with him. He wishes to attain one of the many lightning rods that can be seen on the outside of the tower nearer the storm clouds. There are plentiful entrances and staircases that can be observed from the ground; however, no-one has ever been observed traversing them...

The Lost City of Kazim-Kazim

For many years, the trade routes running to Fenrecz through the Great Southern Swamp came from two cities, the island fortress/floating city of Schelotto and the grand stepped city of Kazim-Kazim, the most westward outpost of the Celestial Caliphate, the three cities forming a roughly equilateral triangle across the two "horns" and the center of Oest Bay.

About 100 years ago, the Caliphate ships arriving in Schelotto and Fenrecz did so bearing outlandish stories of the disappearance of Kazim-Kazim, rocks, plants and and an eerie fog replacing the stepped districts and Sultan's Palace, with no seeming trace of human habitation left behind. Although these were laughed off as drunken captains overshooting their destination, further investigation revealed that the stories were true, the city was gone, much to the concern of those residents of the city who had been elsewhere at the time of the disappearance.

Multiple expeditions to discover what might have happened proved fruitless, with more than a few never returning at all. Most prudent folk presumed the latter was due to ships lost to heavy seas and other such accidents, although tongues wag about the gods or demons that destroyed Kazim-Kazim continuing their vengeance on those that would seek the Lost City. As time has passed and the city has drifted out of the general consciousness, such expeditions have become more and more rare, with only occasional mad scholars and glory seekers sending ships down the eastern edge of the bay, spurred on by occasional stories of having seen the Palace drifting above the clouds or hearing the cries of vendors drifting over the waves.

Wot Really Happened

Kazim-Kazim was, in antiquity, an independent Sultanate formed by settlers moving out of the East and changed from a fishing village on a naturally protected cove to a major port, a port that served mainly traders coming from the East, lands that were later to become the Celestial Caliphate. Kazim-Kazim grew in wealth and quickly came to the notice of the Celestial Caliphate, who moved quickly to establish a temple there and while Kazim-Kazim remained largely autonomous, the Caliphate's influence slowly grew to the point where Kazim-Kazim was considered part of it.

Kazim-Kazim owed its wealth and odd name to the fact that the city was, in fact and in secret, two Kazims, existing simultaneously in two different planes, the peculiar geometry of the city arranged such that the Palace existed in both with the rest of the cities overlapping, although not literally, as rules regarding building in spaces left open for "spirits" or "gods" were strictly enforced in both cities. It so happened in our particular plane that the Caliphate's interest became too great for the Sultan to bear and with both the independence of the city and the secret of the cities under threat, great magics were spun such that one city left one plane and joined with the other. This caused some problems in areas of the city where building codes were not enforced; however, it generally went without much of a hitch, unless you counted the wholesale slaughter of everybody known to be sympathetic to the Caliphate a "hitch".

While the "disappearance" of the city has largely gone well for those who caused it, there are occasions when the powers-that-be in Kazim-Kazim have need to access to the abandoned plane of reality and at these times, when a heavy fog descends on the shore, it has been said that mysterious ships of well-armed and hardened men slip in and out of where a port might be, going where and doing what, who knows, except that particularly brave or foolhardy adventurers may be able to follow, even into the mysterious fog itself.

(Debts and apologies owned to China Mieville, amongst many others.)

Nightwing Temple, part the third

The Top of the Tower

At the top of Nightwing Temple is Hrafnsmál the Corvus Demon, literally sitting in a large nest made out of sticks and other random pieces of wood. Attended by several (3-8) large ravens, he is usually reading a book or peering into his seeing pool.

Hrafnsmál is obsessed with locating an ancient artifact that he calls the Brazen Cup, to the point of complete disinterest in all other matters. He will offer (and pay) non-extravagant rewards for information about it that seems legitimate and if its location becomes known, he will attempt to hire the party to retrieve it, explaining that due to his odd appearance, he cannot travel openly. He will insist that Ásmundur accompany the party if they accept.

In combat, Hrafnsmál fights with Fuglur, his quarterstaff, as well as with an automatic attack that causes 1D6 of cold damage to everybody meeting his gaze and then causes a further -1 die step for the next 2 rounds due to being chilled to the bone. He can also cast a Frost Bolt-esque attack spell as well as Darkness (adjust for your particular system). He will also be assisted by the large ravens who flock around the tower (3-18 arriving the round after combat starts), the birds will specifically target the eyes of the party, plucking them out on critical rolls unless measures are taken to protect the eyes (covered helms would count, for example). He can't be damaged except by magical items.

If defeated, Hrafnsmál's material form disappears and he's banished from appearing on this plane for a year. Needless to say, when he does come back, he'll be a little peeved with the group that destroyed him.

Loot!

Secreted in Hrafnsmál's nest is an impressive collection of gems, jewelry and assorted coinage.

Aside from material wealth and Fuglur, there is also:

A small hand-held scrying pool -- a small silver dish with handles -- if filled with water and concentrated on for a minute or so, the water will first turn cloudy and then opaque, allowing the holder to make a Rego Imaginem roll (or the equivalent ability/skill check) to scry with the following difficulties:

Self (will show invisible items nearby): 3

Known* person, item or geographical feature: 7

Unknown geographical feature: 11

Unknown person or item: 15

This roll is affected by proximity to ley lines.

* - The scryer must have met, seen, or been to the target being scryed.

Collar of St. Konnac -- a silver torc, open-ended on the front, with two dog's heads facing each other. When worn, it radiates an Aura of Truth -- nobody standing within 30' of the wearer may knowingly tell a falsity -- any attempt of dissembling will result in complete honesty, with the speaker not realizing what has happened until they are done speaking. The effect is even more dangerous for the wearer -- if they attempt to lie, the torc will pull itself tight and attempt to strangle the user. An impressive combined Strength/Bend Bars/Lift Gates roll must be made to try and remove the torc -- players may also try and break the torc with weapons at the very likely risk of damaging the user as well.

There is also collection of books, all being histories or mythological poetry in which the Brazen Cup is mentioned.

Maps

I lied, no maps. Look, it's a pretty simple setup. Isolated temple, outbuildings are rubble, main building has a foyer/entry, a large main area with pews and an altar, a tower with a spiral staircase, a few small rooms behind the tower where the valravns live, a top to the tower and a cellar used for storage that connects to some twisty little tunnels (I put a necromancer and a ghost mansion at the end of mine).

If somebody wants maps, I'll make 'em though.

The New Digs

So I decided to pull up stakes and and move the whole shebang over to Blawgger. Mainly because almost every gaming blog I read is also over here and I was tired of being unable to post comments with the Wordpress account, so instead decided to bring the mountain to Mohammed.

(Plus it's not like I'm exactly uprooting a major reader base either.)

The Fenrecz campaign played again on Sunday with the result that at the end of the night, the party were all inhabiting the phantasmal bodies of ghosts stuck in an endless cycle of a dinner party gone horribly wrong, meaning that the party needs to to figure out some way to fix said dinner party in order to re-inhabit their earthly bodies, currently lying unconscious in a long-abandoned swanky mansion far below the current surface of the city of Fenrecz. One of the side-effects of having new vessels is that they needed to re-roll their physical stats. Except for the dwarven wrestler, everybody is now significantly stronger than they used to be, which should be helpful in getting out of this particular jam.

(The absolute best moment of the session was when two players simultaneously decided to eat/drink the food and wine being circulated throughout the ancient and abandoned mansion on mysteriously floating serving platters. My glee was palpable.)

Nightwing Temple, part the second

Who's in and Around That Temple

Hrafnsmál will almost always be in his "nest" at the top of the tower, consulting with his ravens or studying from his library. Ásmundur and Ámundur will be below, on the ground floor of the chapel, playing a game of chess. Three to four dozen ravens will be roosting/circling the tower at any given time, with large (10+ ravens) flocks regularly coming and going. A dozen or so animated skeletons stand aimlessly around the main chapel area. There used to be more of them; however, the group guarding the chapel and the tunnels outside of it have gradually gotten harder to control, to the point where the valravns have barred the cellar entrance and left the skeletons outside to their own devices.

The valravns suspect some sort of outside influence and they are correct. At the end of the tunnels, a necromancer named Naha has taken up residence after noticing the valravns out in the city on one of their various missions. Years of research later, he knows what the brothers are and has tracked them to Nightwing Temple (although he is unaware of the presence of Hrafnsmál). Setting up residence in a disguised and repurposed storm drain, Naha has used subtle spells to gradually reduce the control the valravns have over the skeletons with the intention of luring them to investigate. He's set up a well-hidden alarm rune in one of the access tunnels and has prepared a nasty surprise in the form of a ritual circle created by setting crushed gems into floor carvings, primed with some blood sacrifices, which combined with an icon of Tittivila, should allow him control over any undead opponents. He'll then be able to put the valravns into some stasis coffins (AKA the best thing to ever come out of ToEE) and start on some awesome experiments.

The Chapel

Should the players approach the temple with a dead cat on a stick, they will be allowed to gain entrance freely. Inside the chapel, the skeletons will be arrayed to either side of the pews, tracking any visitors with their empty eye sockets. There is a skeleton impaled to the floor here with a Tooth of Vorn (or similarly interesting magical weapon). Ámundur will appear out of the gloom of the rear of the chapel and ask the party's business with "the master". He will not reveal Hrafnsmál's name, although he will give his own and his station of "the master's herald". Ámundur will agree to convey a message to his master if asked politely. He will not allow the party to go up the tower unless they know Hrafnsmál's name -- if they do, he and Ásmundur will accompany the group upstairs. If the party asks about the sword, the valravns will offer it to them or if the party just takes it, they will say they are welcome to it; however, either way they will ask the party if they will do them a favor in return, to be named later. If the party refuses, they will be attacked unless they can talk their way out of it. If, at any point, Ámundur is attacked, the skeletons will charge the party and Ásmundur will arrive in the following round. The valravns will target any obvious spellcasters and will use space intelligently. If the encounter starts turning against them (all the skeletons are dead and/both valravns are wounded/one valravn is killed), they will shapechange into giant ravens and escape through holes in the chapel ceiling to the top of the tower.

If the group decides to openly assault the Temple, they will first be met by a swarm of ravens, who will concentrate on attacking the faces of the party, with special attention paid toward the eyes. If they manage to gain entrance to the chapel, they'll be met by the skeletons and then the valravns in human form should they reduce the skeletons to half-a-dozen or less. Combat will then follow as if the party decided to attack the valravns in the above paragraph.

If the party decides to leave (they have delivered their message, etc.) the valravns will inform them that it will be many hours before the water recedes again and they can leave the way they came in (this is true) and it would be easier to go out through the cellar entrance. They hope that the party will flush out whatever's been spooking the skeletons without having to do so themselves and will try and ease the party into going that direction.

NEXT TIME: Maps (this time I swear) What's At the Top of the Tower

How It Went

In our group's adventure, the party was given a message to take to the "occupant of the temple" and given directions on how to proceed through the Warrens/Lock district, including the advice to have a dead cat on a stick in order to enter peaceably. After a humorous interlude involving getting barstaff to procure a dead cat for them, the party headed straight to the Temple and entered with no fuss, although they were mildly surprised that the guardians were not interested in eating the dead cat. Then followed a comedic interchange with Ámundur (the party asked about the dead cat, with Ámundur telling them that just seeing a dead cat "pleases the ravens"), with the party leaping to the conclusion that the knight was a zombie of above-average intelligence and the valravn amused by the resulting interaction. After providing the party with some old yet decent wine from the chapel cellar, Ámundur took their message to the tower while Ásmundur "checked the waterfall schedule" in the temple foyer (in reality, he closed and barred the front gate, which somewhat agitated the party when they heard this). Ásmundur then said that the next time the waterfall would open was some time in the future and it would be easier for the party to leave via "the back way". The players did not question why this meant the front entrance should be closed and barred and instead followed the valravns (Ámundur having had returned from the tower with a sealed message in a scroll case) through the chapel cellar to a barred stone door. The two groups parted jovially and the party headed down the dark and dank passage, showing minimal concern at the sound of the door being barred behind them.

Traveling through the catacombs and sewers between the Temple cellar and Naha's house, the party were ambushed by a group of eight skeletons. Having gone through previous combat encounters like a hot knife through butter, the party were overconfident against what appeared to be a lesser danger as one party member ran for cover in a tunnel while the rest decided to duke it out while surrounded by the undead foes. They quickly realized what a bad idea this was when two party members were dealt near-critical blows. With both the dwarf and the priest 1-2 rounds from death, they broke off combat and bleeding badly, managed to gain safety in the tunnel leading to Naha's secret chamber, getting lucky with healing spells to prevent any party deaths from their gushing wounds. Only the halfling was in any shape to fight and was having no luck using his rapier against his fleshless opponents. Switching things up, he concentrated on disarming the skeletons and then defending against their bony fists while retreating down the tunnels to keep the conflict on a one-to-one basis.

Reaching the bricked-up end of the tunnel, the dwarf burst through it with a single blow and he and the elf were met by Naha's domination attempt. The elf reacted quickest to run past Naha, who, surprised by the lack of dominated valravns, attempted to paralyze the dwarf, who resisted and responded with a direct charge, chopping off one of the necromancer's hands. He was quickly joined by the halfling, leaving the half-orc in the tunnel to hold off the skeletons, a decision based on the priest managing an exceptional success on a strength spell, allowing him to scatter the undead with relative ease (although he was almost killed at one point, saved only by an extremely poor damage roll on the part of the skeletons). Naha pulled out a potion from his belt and was preparing to down it when the dwarf struck again, severing the arm holding the potion and killing the mage in the process. The halfling doubled back to help the half-orc finish off the skeletons, leaving the dwarf to sample the potion, which turned him into a fine mist. This is where the session ended.

Nightwing Temple, part the first

Fenrecz, lying in a relatively steep box-like canyon, is dominated by a major thoroughfare known as the Serpent Road, hewn from the green stone of the surrounding Viridian Cliffs. The Serpent Road has seven switchbacks, allowing horses and carts to traverse the city. Each switchback is referred to as a "coil", so a destination could be "on the third coil". At each point where the road switches back on itself, there is a large square, generally used for open-air markets, public executions and the like. At the North end of the city, the first coil passes over a series of complicated locks controlled by the Duke of Fenrecz, allowing some amount of control over the passage of the Eel River that flows into and under the city.

These locks open and close on a complex schedule, either through massive automated machinery or a cult-like group of operators (there are rumors about both). Moving on the bridges and stairways in the Locks is extremely dangerous if you aren't aware of the intricate and changing schedule, as massive amounts of cold water can easily sweep anybody in the area off their feet, to be dashed on stone hundreds of feet below, drowned as they are forced through any number of underground channels or worse, flushed alive into the Eel Weirs. There are a large amount of waterfalls that serve as natural barriers to progress until a great grinding is heard, a lock somewhere high above is closed and the water stops flowing, opening up a new, dripping passage. Behind one of these water walls lies access to Nightwing Temple.

How I Learned to Love Not Making Skill Rolls

I had a thought about a post for today and luck of luck, this post about skill rolls pretty much lined up perfectly with what I was already thinking about

A slight tangent: The quote that doesn't feel right to me, which is near the end of the article, is "rolling a die and adding a number to it is not inherently pleasurable" (paraphrased slightly). I do have a bone of contention here because not only am I certain that my players find it pleasurable (they have been known to come up with excuses to roll when it was not at all necessary), I think that a certain amount of gambling theory is based on people deriving pleasure from this sort of thing.

HOWEVER

Hacking a System, the Consensus Method

One thing that I've been trying to do lately is talk with the players before each session about how they feel about the system and the various mechanics that I've been coming up with. It's a good time for it because we're generally just eating some dinner-type food, the kids are getting ready for bed and we're all getting warmed up for hucking slave-slaads down slime-pits and then lowering the halfling down said pits on a rope.

Anyway, the player who's playing the arcane spellcaster was talking about how because of the aggravated wound system connected to casting spells, that although it made magic mysterious and dangerous, it also resulted in the party just taking whole weeks off to rest up so that they can get rid of those piled-up wound points because, in a system where death is just one or two swings of an axe away, having those points missing is pretty huge. Although I was initially resistant, I could see his point, we had to take the efficiency of the meta-game into account just as much as verisimilitude, and that doesn't necessarily mean sacrificing the latter for the former.

So we added a new damage track.

The Great Southern Swamp, a brief primer

Fenrecz lies directly north of a large delta that eventually turns into a much larger bay. The delta is a mix of swamp and marshland with some large channels/rivers cutting through it. A relatively high treeline and heavy fog impair visibility and the constantly shifting courses and currents of the channels, even the largest ones, make navigating it via boat a tricky endeavor, although one that's attempted on a regular basis as it is still the best way to transport goods to and from Schelotto and other points south[1].

The most dangerous aspect of the Southern Swamps are the residents, most particularly the warring tribes of lizard men that are the dominant sentient inhabitants. Although many of the tribes have legends of when they fought with strange, demonic-like frog men, those times are well beyond living memory and most of their conflict is with whatever travelers attempt to move through the region or more frequently, with other lizard men.

In the Land of the Obliviax Eaters

From the desk of Humberto Malladonnina, scholar of Schelotto:

Obliviax, or "memory moss" is one of the most intriguing specimens for scholars of magical flora. For one thing, the most important attribute of the moss, the ability to absorb memories, is the most dangerous aspect of studying it.

There are two facts about obliviax that most people are unaware of:

1. Those who ingest obiliviax moss in a certain amount gain not only the memories contained in the moss; they also develop a dependence on the moss, becoming consumed with the desire to attain more memories, through the moss if possible; through other means if necessary.


2. An obliviax colony, having grown to a certain size and having attained a certain amount of memories, achieves sentience of its own, of a sort[1].

Fenrecz

Fenrecz is the main campaign city for the game that I'm currently running. Geographically, it sits in the middle of the Viridian Cliffs, a long stretch of sheer wall caused by some unknown seismic shift or magical disaster far in the world's past. Here, a mighty river has carved a box canyon and a small settlement on the river banks has become a huge and complex city that takes up the whole of the box canyon, from wall to wall and from top to bottom. It's loosely intended to be evocative of Vienna/Budapest of Early Modern times and is ruled by a mysterious Duke and his imposing copper-masked guards. The land to the north is scattered duchys and small holdings, southward is a great swamp delta where lizardmen and human bandits prey on merchant shipping.

As you may have guessed, Fenrecz is heavily influenced by Vornheim, as I bought Zak S's supplement prior to designing it. As such, it's chaotic and heavily vertical -- not only are most of the buildings towers like you see in Vornheim, the entire city is build on top of older versions of itself, creating The Warrens, a labyrinth of causeways, aqueducts, old buildings and foundations that sits underneath the city proper, where the Duke's men dare not trespass and where the lawless of the city reside, although there are pockets of relative safety. There are also giant cisterns carved beneath the city, used mainly for eel-breeding (and, it is rumored, for the ready disposal of unwanted corpses). The main architectural feature of Fenrecz is a snake-like switchback road that criss-crosses the whole of the city, allowing trade goods to be transported to and from the docks that serve as the city's north and south borders (the southern docks are well outside the city walls and essentially serve as a second, smaller and far more dangerous hamlet).

So you just type anything and it shows up here

A bit of explanation regarding the title of the blog is probably called for -- it came from a particular Second Edition campaign in high school where the party was very cautious when advancing through the dungeon, to an almost absurd degree. Our rogue was fanatical about listening through keyholes before we entered each room and one day the DM had had enough, responding to the "I listen at the door" with "You hear the sound of a crossbow cocking" and then rolled damage for the bolt smashing through the lock and into the unfortunate halfling's head. Unfair? Probably. Hilarious? At least for our bunch of teenagers, definitely. It was all in good fun in the end as the character wound up surviving and we had an in-joke that had enough legs to last across many campaigns and groups.

(Another 'classic' from that group was when the elf died and for reasons that I cannot recall entirely, we hacked up the corpse and put it in saddlebags for easier transport. We then were ambushed by orcs while at low health and in a flash of brilliance, bartered for our lives by giving the orcs some "Elf McNuggets", under the reasoning that we only needed part of the corpse to bring the elf back anyway.)

I was first introduced to D&D when somebody (I cannot recall who, most probably my parents) got me the original red box set (either 12th or 13th printing, I'm not sure which). I remember taking myself through the included adventure a few times and reading it about a million times -- I still have some of the original green dice where you needed to color in the numbers with a crayon. In junior high I wound up hanging out with a recent transplant from Vermont who not only played D&D; he'd also done LARPing out in the woods with people with padded weapons and such, complete with colored powder tied up in tissue paper that you threw for spells, a la the famous "lightning bolt" video. We got a group together, somebody polymorphed my paladin into a stone giant at some point and I haven't stopped playing since, although there have been some extended breaks lately as our current group (together for 15+ years in one form or another) has gotten old enough that there are now three kids and a lot of other adult responsibilities involved -- we try and play weekly; however, there's often something else taking precedent, so game nights can be sporadic.