What are you running in Dark Sun? Modules or something else?
Always wanted to try dark sun but haven’t gotten around to it. Saw a forbidden lands hack of it a couple of years back that seemed cool.
Official 2e modules plus some fan-made or magazine-published stuff.
From what we have already played, you’ll be better off doing your own material running sandbox-style using the setting books and supplements, rather than running published modules (most of them are quite sub-par and lean heavily on the railroad side, sadly).
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started working on an open table megadungeon campaign in Stonehell. Not the most exciting dungeon, but it’s ready to play and easy to use, so ultimately should be a fine time :^)
probably launching in the next two weeks
On session 2 of SILENT TITANS. and whoa boy. WHOA BOY. my head hurts.
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Damn, I admire your ambition. How un-runnable is it so far? I love the vibe of it but heard it’s kind of a mess
it is runnable. with heavy, heavy prep. including reading up on various online guides, as well finding blog posts from Patrick Stewart that include information that never made it into the final version that is pretty critical to running it.
I would say, once our get over the complete lack of proper presentation/organization/editing, there are some very compelling locations with very compelling situations. everything comes together very dynamically. at its core, its quality stuff. my only fear is that there isn’t much grounding the players. its anti-cozy. they might tire of it before it runs its course.
I’m currently having something of a personal bonanza of TTRPG activities.
Ironsworn by Shawn Tomkin - Solo play that was my re-entry to the hobby after decades being away. Brilliant game by a gifted designer and it will always hold a special spot in my heart and life.
Pathfinder 2e - Paizo. A husband of an old friend invited me to join his group after the friendship was renewed. I enjoy the company of the players, but not at all a fan of the system.
Shadowdark- The Arcane Library (Kelsey Dionne) - This is MY game. This game plays like I always expected or wanted D&D to play. She’s done a brilliant job. I initially played via VTT with a pickup group from TheArcaneLibrary official discord. I’ve since moved to an in person group that meets every Monday. This has been a development/opportunity that has brought me indescribable joy.
Dolmenwood - Necrotic Gnome/Gavin Normal - I’m more interested in the setting than the system. I’m still in the dark why B/X is so revered. But this week I start a weekly Thursday night game being run by one of my fellow players from my Monday night SD game. I LOVE the setting. I love that it’s fairytale fantasy instead of vanilla/Tolkien-esque fantasy.
Cairn - Can’t remember the guy’s name. Kris McDowl I think his name is 
. But seriously. Shadowdark has been so enjoyable, I’ve actually felt the urge to run games. Since I’m enjoying SD so much, I don’t want to ruin potential content by running it myself, so I want to run something different. As happy as I am with SD, I’ve come to the realization that my tastes are more aligned by classless&level-less play. Basically, everything Yochai is trying to do, I’m here for. Now, if I can just work up the final amount of necessary courage….
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im running an open table, play by post game of longshot city, but we’re making Rocket City as we play. 5 players, we run duet to the full team, 2 are regular posters, the other 3 have played a few times. its fun though. i like the troika system, and i think it works really well with superheroes. its rocket tag but the ko table really lowers the stakes, which i like.
After a long season of schedule instability and general life craziness, I am putting a one-shot of Public Access on the calendar. I’m a little nervous because I haven’t run a game in so long, but I am excited!
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A few weeks ago I started running Cairn 2e for a couple of my old DnD 5e players. Out of my old 5e group, these were the two who were the least interested in combat, and the most likely to interact with the secondary world instead of game mechanics, so they took to OSR play like ducks to water! I ran The Temple of the Blood Moth, starting them in medias res as kidnapped villagers in the basement dungeon. My players avoided going deeper into the further levels of the dungeon with all the gross cool moth monsters, but snuck their way to the above ground levels. They planned carefully (and got pretty lucky with their encounter rolls) and ended up ambushing the big bad in his bedchambers. In classic D&D fashion they used arson to solve their problems, lantern molotoving the cult leader vampire-wizard in his coffin before ganging up on him. We’re supposed to play again next weekend, so we’ll see if they decide to go deeper into the dungeon or flee. If they flee, then I think the rest of moth cult will make a great reoccurring villain faction.
And last night I ran Mausritter for my little cousins ( two boys two girls, ages 9-15). I ran Amanda Lee Franck’s excellent adventure “The Wizard of Arms and Armour” from The Estate box set. It was a perfect intro adventure for them. They did some fun role-playing, coming up with justifications to be given a tour of the wizard’s tower then causing distractions to sneak off. They defeated the big bad evil wizard (with a flaming arrow to the butt, classic), freed all the imprisoned mice, and befriended a bat. I was hoping to keep them busy for a couple hours, but we played for closer to five hours and everyone was locked in. Afterwards the two youngest were asking me questions about how to GM, so who knows I might get to be a player one day, haha!
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I am starting a campaign for Leo Hunt‘s The Shrike next month using a modified version (dare I say hacked?) of Grave, a Knave 1e hack by Jason Tocci.
I am very interested in finding out how the big OSR campaign module works out at the table.
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