The Halls of Arden Vul Ep 68 - Old School Essentials Megadungeon | Filling in the Corners

Icky floating electro-pods are a bit off-putting, so the AV Club decides to investigate some of the nearby chambers in the Debouchement, filling in some long forgotten spots on their map. Then, it's off to meet with Count Skleros, Commander, 4th Kentarchia, 3rd Cohort, Imperial Tagmata!
Feats of Exploration achieved during this session: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
The Halls of Arden Vul is by Richard Barton, Andreas Claren, and Joseph Browning, published by Expeditious Retreat Press.
Purchase it here: www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/p...
Old School Essentials is by Gavin Norman a.k.a. Necrotic Gnome. OSE is a restatement of the Basic/Expert (B/X) rulesets of Dungeons & Dragons, originally published in 1981. Check it out at necroticgnome.com/.
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Isometric maps by Jason Lutes.
Maps used in the channel banner by Dyson Logos.
Intro music by Muzaproduction.

[@GeekNGame]

I really gotta give it to Jon, not only is he a fantastic GM just all around, but holy shit, he's also incredible at coming up with voices for all these NPCs.

[@3D6DTL]

Thanks! The problem is remembering them! 😜

[@chris70723]

@geekgame5081 so on point with your comment

[@Robosobojobo146471]

Don’t know whose idea it was to bring their cantankerous grandpa to work, but I’m glad Cheek’s getting some time out.

[@michaelmorrison8679]

fantasy boston grandpa

[@passthegrits]

It doesn't matter what David would rather do, as he is dead to us tonight.

[@Metal_Horror]

"Trefko doesn't share beetles." Good one. 😎

[@magdaleneabiuso65]

Matt's got me giggling like an idiot at work! The grouchy old barbarian is too good.

[@youreamazing275]

I love love love that we're back to door D&D: Kick down the door, find weird stuff, mess around with it, rinse and repeat. Exploration of the unknown is so fun (especially when I as a viewer knows that's really going on). Great work on keeping up the pace of the session Jon!

[@Metal_Horror]

I usually don't read the module stuff on the screen so most things are a surprise to me too. Every once in a while I get super curious and have to know, though. And I do look at the maps.

[@Metal_Horror]

Oh man I love it when 3D6 drops on my day off. I'm an early riser too; 5am D&D. 🤓

[@trumblefamily7832]

Mike, that Sprockets thing had me dying.

[@hangarflying]

Wilfieard’s accent moved from Midwest through Boston to Trans-Atlantic.

[@mattavaricios4679]

It takes some skilled voicemanship to navigate such a complex and sophisiticated pastiche.

[@timothyreal]

Twist: Wulfheard Cheek is actually an upper-middle class city-dweller who decided to become a barbarian purely due to poverty tourism. The vacillating accent is him trying (and failing) to pin down what he thinks normal people talk like.

[@Metal_Horror]

Seems like a spy that keeps forgetting his cover story... Wait a second. You don't think maybe hes one of Craz's cronies in disguise, do you? 😱

[@jaybakata5566]

I LOVE all 3d6 Down The Line videos!! He's got 3 hit points, that is at least 2 more than you need. Epic! They made it to the 7th of gelanious or whatever it is called! Mike said, "Guys don't get me killed I have to go choke my kids out". This is why I can't let me wife watch this with me, thanks Mike! You might have to change your group name to "trash rooters". On second thought you should be called the "30 min plan makers that then throw the plan out the top of the dungeon and do whatever they see next ~ group". Or we can just shorten it to the ADHD club. Mike says, "Confession, I can't find Sam's character sheet." I'm thinking because she got bored and left.

[@rrcabr]

I really like the beastmen, I think they are a very stable faction. At least, so far, it looks like they are quite trust worthy and honourable. I'm excited to see you guys working with them!

[@Metal_Horror]

Me too. I've had a good feeling about them since someone (I think it was the first Sun-Scarred Knight) said they liked them and they were poorly understood. From afar, they're strange abominations that Craz uses as a light afternoon snack; up close, they seem to be an honorable race with principles and varied politics, and of course they have an interesting backstory we'll get to unpack.

[@timothyreal]

Great episode as always! Truly the best actual play around!

[@Tavarna]

Watching Jon’s face and mimics when shits happening at the background is so fun.

[@lukac.2977]

R.I.P David 😢

[@BaltoBruiser]

Almost time to add a second page to the "delver" tier of patreons. Good on you!

[@3D6DTL]

I know! A good problem to have! 😎

[@lukejackson3901]

Very cool session

[@VisableVetetable]

🫡🇺🇸🦅 RIP wear black in memory of David 🦅🇺🇸🫡

[@chungbertflabbergast5995]

Definitely an intriguing session! Looking forward to seeing how the meeting at the end of the episode continues.

[@mandonz]

Really looking forward to the detox on this one! Lots of planning what with the info from Skleros at the end there. Ka pai!

[@bigadam]

I'm glad the gang is interacting with the Beastmen! Ever since we learned of their legionnaire ties they've seemed like an interesting faction - and one that Mort in particular would get along with

[@Steven.T.Y.]

No, you should stay. But be careful, where there's metroids, space pirates are sure to be close behind.

[@BaltoBruiser]

Despite the fact that the only combat was against two fire beetles which stood no chance against Trefko and the Club, this was another great session with exemplary OSR role playing. I enjoyed the dungeon crawling as well as the interactions with the Beastmen. Listened while commuting today and was the crazy guy in his car laughing out loud while alone in his car for 2 hours. Thanks for making the commute enjoyable.

[@horusofoz]

Thank you for a couple more hours of fun entertainment :)

[@dungeoneerofphilosophyphd172]

Watching these latest episodes, I think the party could get good use out of some ranged weaponry. Definitely conditional use in these old school games, but the ability to not get in melee range of, say, the giant baboons, would be powerful when/if it works, and with the tight corridors in some parts of AV, they could lay down some pretty mean ambushes I bet. I also have to say that I love that Mort has a face role in the party, and that it's somewhat of a bit at this point. He owes it all to his natural goblin fecundity I am sure

[@mistergoats4380]

First

[@LailaJohanna]

Second :)

[@Metal_Horror]

First ...DOH! 😤

[@ChuckBarchuk]

I have question about some of your houserules: When backstabbing do thieves still get a +4 to hit or are they just rolling with advantage? And lastly a level 13 Thief rolls 3d6 damage on a successful hit. Would a backstab still only be 12 damage as well?

[@3D6DTL]

A thief gets the +4 to hit as normal. Only dual-wielding provides an attack with advantage; it is unrelated to the Backstab ability. Yes, a thief’s Backstab always does 12+mods flat damage, regardless of level. At high levels, you’re trading the lower potential for higher damage for a guaranteed flat number that is still a significant amount of damage against powerful foes (at least as measured in most OSR bestiaries).

[@ChuckBarchuk]

@@3D6DTL Very cool. I really like your house rules. So is the flat damage of 12 for a backstab an average number of something? Just curious how you came up with it. Thanks again.

[@3D6DTL]

@ChuckBarchuk I yanked that from a blog post, and I wish I could remember from whom, so I could give credit. I think I may have even read it from one of the Knock! collections, actually. And yeah, I believe the reason is because it measures favorably with the average damage output of a powerful fighter. 12 hp is instant death for a huge range of opponents, or at the very least, would trigger a Morale check. And if you combine it with my house rule that thieves normally are only doing d4 damage, it makes setting up and executing a Backstab always the best and most desirable option for a thief in or out of combat, rather than going toe-to-toe. IMO, thieves are intentionally NOT designed to be good in combat. If they want to be effective, they need to be sneaky.

[@ChuckBarchuk]

@@3D6DTL I love it. Let me ask you this, I've always used increasing backstab multipliers as laid out in Greyhawk. How would I implement this if I wanted to use your flat damage rule? I was thinking of upping the damage by 4 at each THACO increase. So 12 > 16 > 20 > 24. What do you think? Or maybe an increase of 2 would be more reasonable?

[@3D6DTL]

@ChuckBarchuk I’m no designer, so I can’t extrapolate the repercussions of using that rule, but it looks fun to me!