OSR: Ultraviolet Grasslands Player Intro

I've tried, and failed, to write a player-facing introduction for Luka's Ultraviolet Grasslands setting.

There's just too much... stuff. "Mad Max: Fury Road meets Zardoz meets this music video." is a start. "A heavy metal psychedelic pointcrawl" is good, but doesn't really tell people what they're doing, or who they are, or why they should care. How can you teach new players to speak the bio-techno Mad Libs of UVG without making them read the book (and losing the joy of discovery).

Instead of a text intro, here's a digital comic book (of sorts) made from bits and pieces of early Heavy Metal magazines. It's all anti-canon. Enjoy.

It is so far into the future that everything that [redacted] made possible has happened three times, even world harmony.
-Ra

Heavy Metal 4 V4 #7 (1980)

Heavy Metal 12 V1 #3 (1978)
Heavy Metal 12 V1 #3 (1978)
Heavy Metal 9 V1 #12 (1977)
Heavy Metal 10 V2 #1 (1979)

Heavy Metal 8 V1 #11 (1977)
Heavy Metal 12 V1 #3 (1978)
Heavy Metal 6 V2 #10 (1978)

Heavy Metal V4 #5 (1980)

Heavy Metal 4 V2 #8 (1978)

Heavy Metal 10 V1 #1 (1978)

Heavy Metal 10 V1 #1 (1978)
Heavy Metal 1 V4 #4 (1980)

The Metabarons - Lair of the Shabda Oud #7 - 2000
Heavy Metal 9 V1 #12 (1977)

Heavy Metal  08 V1 #11 (1977)

Heavy Metal 11 V1 #2 (1978)

Heavy Metal  03 V1 #6 (1977)

Everything will have been done for the first time yet again.
-Heavy Metal 09 V2 #1

OSR: Introduction for New Players

I've tried to write down what I tell new players before I start a game. This assumes they've seen D&D on TV or something, and at least know the very basic structure of a game. You might find it useful. You might not agree with all of it, but that's also fine - people run games in different ways. At the very least this might be useful if you've never run a game before.

This discussion assumes that the GM has gone over the different parts of a character sheet and some of the other mechanical basics. Every book has a bit that tells you what Stats and Skills and HP and XP are. I don't want to type it all out again. Some of the notes are also GLOG-specific, and most of them are OSR specific. I'd write a very different intro for a Fate Core game.

This is designed to be read out before the first session starts. It might help if you're trying to run the Tomb of the Serpent Kings dungeon.

There are elements of chance

Ever played cops and robbers or any other made-up games? Did you ever meet the one kid who said "Nuh uh,  you didn't hit me, I have a bulletproof vest!" In this game of make-believe, there are a few rules to help decide who hits who, and how hard, and other things like that.

Your characters are also going to have some random numbers assigned to them. Sometimes the numbers will be good, and sometimes they'll be bad, and there's not much you can do about it. In this game the numbers aren't that important. Sometimes, a character will terrible stats and survive for ages, while a character with brilliant stats dies in the first hour of game.

There are elements of skill

In Settlers of Catan, the rules are fixed and solid and balanced. You can't go "Hey Steve, I'll take my Knights and you take your Knights and we'll go pillage that Sheep tile." That's not in the rules. And that's fine. But in a game like this, you can come up with any plans you want to. In that way the game is like a real world, and the people in it are like real people. Nobody minds too much if you go around smashing pottery and looting houses in a video game, but in this game, that sort of thing has real consequences. Similarly, you can't lure Bowser out of his castle with a delicious meal in the video game because cooking wasn't coded into the game.

Coming up with a good plan and executing that plan is important. Be smart. Pay attention. Think of solutions that the rules don't cover.

In Character vs Out of Character

You don't have to do silly voices or wear costumes. You'll figure out how comfortable you are acting as your character as we go along. The main thing, right now, is to remember that your character knows things you don't know, and that you know things your character doesn't know.

Your character knows things about the world that you, as a player, don't know. They know how to ride a horse or make poison or identify magic runes. If there's a situation where that applies, I'll just tell you what your character knows. If I'm not sure, I might make you roll for it.

Similarly, there are things you know that your characters don't know. The main one is reason. We live in a logical age; the characters you're playing don't. They don't have the benefit of a post-Enlightenment education. They might not even be literate. You aren't afraid of the weather because you understand what weather is. Your characters don't. They might not understand things that we take for granted, and they might act on motives that we'd fine archaic or ridiculous.

You, the player, might know things about other characters or the world that your character doesn't. You might know a secret about another character's past, or the best way to kill a vampire. But remember,  your character can only act on knowledge they have in the game.We'll discuss this more as it comes up.

Your characters are going to die

Did you ever play Super Mario Bros? Mario died a lot in that game. Sometimes he died because you made a mistake. Sometimes it was chance, or luck, or you were distracted, or you didn't understand how an enemy worked. This game is like that, except in the video game, Mario comes back again and again. In this game, each time you get a new character.

Having a character die doesn't mean you made a mistake or failed. It's part of the learning process. Sometimes it's just random chance.

You get to make a new character, and I'll find a way to introduce them to the group. You start at Level 1 again but it's not a big deal. A Level 1 character is just as useful as a Level 4 character almost every way. You'll never be completely outclassed.

Leveling

You level up and improve your character by looting treasure. Imagine a dragon and its hoard. Kill the dragon and you get 0 XP. Steal the treasure, by force or stealth, and it counts. You have to get it out of the dungeon and take it somewhere safe, but once it's safe - buried, spent, invested, or donated - it counts.

You start at Level 1. Levels 2 through 4 are where major upgrades to your character take place. By Level 4, you're about as powerful as you'll ever become, but you'll still get slightly better every Level past 4.

At Level 5, and every time you level up past Level 5, you can retire your character to safety. This means I won't torment them anymore. If they can afford it, they can buy a or rent some land, set up a shop, teach at a wizard college, or beg in the gutter. They won't affect the plot anymore, but the plot won't specifically affect them. General disasters (fire, plagues, war, demonic invasions) will still affect their lives, but they are safe from almost anything else. Feel free to organize your character's retirement ahead of time. You can try and buy a castle, a tavern, or a political position.

If your character reaches Level 10 the usual death rules change slightly. They are less likely to make their general Saves vs Dying, but when Death does turn up, they now have a decent chance of fighting, escaping, or conniving their way out of it.

The Social Contract

If you like this game and you're having fun, show up on time, or tell me in advance if you can't make it. If you don't like this game, let me know and we'll make changes.

Please don't bring out your phones during game unless there's something urgent. Ideally this is the most interesting thing going on. In the same vein, understand that there are 5 other people in the room, so don't deliberately waste time.

The setting of this game is semi-medieval. That means that terrible things happen on a regular basis. It would feel like I was whitewashing or disneyfing the past if I said that this setting doesn't include things like misogyny, racism, sexual violence, etc. These things happen in the real world. It'd be strange to have a fictional world without them. That being said, they won't form a major part of this game. 

Gender is also much more important in this game than it is in the modern world, but possibly less important than you might fear. At the very high end of society, you can get away with breaking gender norms by wealth, power, law, and ability. At the very low end, nobody cares. It's only the middle classes and the Church who obsess over propriety and station. It probably won't be an important part of most sessions.

If anything about this game makes you uncomfortable, bring it up immediately. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, or it only occurs to you later, you can always email me.

The Rules

Are always available for you to read. They aren't secret. If you find inconsistencies or errors, let me know, but the rules aren't the law. As the GM, what I say goes, and if need be, what I say, went. If you think you've found a loophole, but the results of that loophole don't make any sense, it will stop working immediately.

Questions

If you have questions, let me know. Some example questions include:

"Can I hit him with an arrow at this distance?"
"What does X taste like?"
"Does my character know anything about X?"
"How much damage does a longsword do if I throw it at someone?"

Before we start, do you have any questions right now?

OSR: Tomb of the Serpent Kings Megapost

People keep asking for "beginner" dungeons. Everyone can name "classic" dungeons - Tomb of Horrors, Barrier Peaks, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc. - but in order for those adventures to make sense, there needs to be some sort of introduction.

It's like all the adventures we have are Bach concertos. People keep writing amazing works of staggering genius, but someone needs to write a book on how to play the piano.

I had the same questions, and since I couldn't find anything satisfactory, I decided to write the kind of dungeon I would have loved to find. I wanted to write the best basic OSR dungeon for beginners that I could, and I also wanted to show the design process.

If you like this dungeon, please share it, tell people about it, print copies and leave them lying around local game stores, or email this post to friends who have "always wanted to try D&D but don't know where to start". The entire thing is and always will be free. 

Goblin Pit by Scrap Princess

Introductory Notes:

The encounters aren't balanced. They don't have difficulty ratings. There are few rewards for fighting.

There might be stuff in this dungeon that you disagree with, especially if you're an experienced GM. That's fine! It's designed to be modular and hackable. Move stuff around. Remove things completely.

Treasure amounts are a balanced around the idea that 200gp is enough to level a single character. By the end of this dungeon, surviving PCs should be level 2 or 3, assuming the usual rates of attrition, loss, and panic. Damage is scaled around PCs having between 4 and 16 hit points. Otherwise, I've tried to make the module as system-less as possible.

The generic OSR introduction I've written here might also be useful. Chris McDowall has an introduction for his system here. And of course, there's Principia Apochrypha. Finally, here's a massive post on how to start playing old-school D&D for free.

Tomb of the Serpent Kings v4.0 PDF

There's also an at-cost print on demand version. If you want to hack, remix, or edit the dungeon there's an Affinity Publisher file available here. Maps and art files are here.

Tomb of the Serpent Kings v3.0 PDF
Tomb of the Serpent Kings v.2.0 PDF

Xiximanter, Scrap Princess

The Original Posts:

Level 1
Level 2
Boss Fight: the Stone Cobra Guardian
Level 3
Boss Fight: the Basilisk

Playthroughs and Reviews:

My group: Session 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9, 10
Throne of Salt: Session 1
GG NO RE: A podcast! Session 1, 2
nthdecree: Session 1
Lawful Neutral: Session 1,2
Slugs and Silver: Session 1, 2, 3, 4,
Asher (Podcast): Session 1, 2
The Things We Do for XP: Session 1, advice.
Iron and Ink: Session 1,
Swords of Mass Destruction: Report and advice.
Spikepit RPG (podcast): After-action report and advice.
Espharel: Session 1, 2, 3,
Trophy Gold (youtube live play): Playlist
Camping With Owlbears: Session 1, 2a, 2b, 3, 4, 5,
Sachagoat: Basilisk notes
Remely Farr: Session 1
Benign Brown Beast: Report and advice.

Arnold K: "Hey, this actually seems like it would accomplish its goal of being a teaching dungeon. I like it."

Daniel Davis: "Ran this tonight, modded it to fit my setting. Half the group was new to D&D. Worked perfectly as tutorial dungeon."

Ten Foot Pole: Worth reading the full review. 11/22, but based on the barebones and haphazard v.1.0

Gabor Lux: "Tomb of the Serpent Kings does that thing introductory dungeon crawls should do, but usually don’t: put the fear of God, the wonder of the unknown, and the feeling of well-earned accomplishment into the players’ hearts. It feels like descending into a dark and odd place where a lot of things will try to kill you if you are not careful, but you will be rich and powerful if you pull it off."

Belchions Sammelsurium: "From a player’s perspective, the dungeon succeeds. It does offer a fun game without straining the suspension of disbelief to much. One does indeed learn most of the dungeon tropes, and how to properly interact with them."

Todd Talks About (video): "It's a very nice touch. I wish more dungeons would give me a localized map like this."

Fear of a Black Dragon: "I think this whole endeavour just seems kind of noble. Just look at the intro. And it helps that it's pretty well executed."

Radio Grognard: "It's wonderful. What I like is that it's so damn versatile."

Translations

(I can't believe I'm able to create a section for this)

German (loose translation, see comment section): Die Gruft der Schlangenkonige
German (new translation): Die Gruft der Schlangenkönige
Spanish: La Tumba de los Reyes Serpiente (At Cost Print on Demand)
French: La Tombe des Rois Serpents
Italian: La Tomba dei Re Serpenti
Russian: Гробница змеиных королей
Portuguese-BR: Tumba dos Reis Serpentes
Ukrainian: Гробниця зміїних королів

Getting The Game Started

Most game books have a section that goes "Here's what a GM is, here's what dice are, and here's an example of play", so I'm not going to write all of that out again.

It's completely fine to introduce the dungeon immediately.

It's also completely fine to say, "For whatever reason, you decide to accept the old man's offer. Every other part of your character's backstory is up to you, but for some reason, you decide to follow the treasure map. What is that reason? Adventure? Debt? Secret cultist orders?"

In my game, the PCs were sent to kill an owlbear. In the course of the fight, the owlbear uncovered the entrance to the tomb.

Other Stuff

Beholder Pie's "Quintessential Dungeon" covers some more OSR tropes, and could easily be bolted onto TotSK.

Osrsimulacrum has a compilation post of introductory OSR adventures, in case you're looking for alternatives or other perspectives.

• UberNietzscheStache has created a player-facing map for online games.
• Dehumanizer has created a fancy battlemap. 
• Rfkannen has created some more maps. 
• IndyJoe has created a Worldographer map. 
• DuvelmanDice has created an isometric map.
• This reddit thread lists things people have added to the treasure room.