dungeon doll

In case you missed it, tomorrow (Jan 18), I'm up for the Debut Blog category in the #BLOGGIES24. If you've been enjoying Dungeon Doll, I would love it if you considered me for this! Without further ado, our fifth delve into my od&d dungeon: Hagfish Hall! Dandelion's Map The Party Daevon, a Veteran, armed with a polearm. Isabella, an Acolyte, armed with a pike. Dandelion, a Medium, armed with a sword. Hirelings Vanessa , a monk of the lawful faith, sporting a tonsure.   The Delve Date: January 13th. Cold wind, mild flurries. "A" Entry Hall-- The party returned to Hagfish Hall in the usual fashion. In the entry hall, the painted lady seemed to be ignoring them. "B" Cage Trap Room-- They headed east to the T-junction, then north. Since their last time here, the cage had been re-covered with another white sheet. Creeping in, they surrounded it, stabbing in with pike and polearm. The cage turned out to be empty. The party carried on to the north. List...

[i originally wrote this as an intro to the Saints post, but ended up cutting it. i decided to put it up as its own post because i got a couple questions about it on blogger and discord] *** At the beginning of time, the Voice of Fire spoke over a black universe. The dragons were the first to inherit the flame. They ruled a sea of cold planets, as the sole source of fire. Either by force of will or a deliberate usurpation, fire came into the possession of the gods. They began to slay the dragons, in attempt to keep the fire for themselves alone. In a Promethean act, the goddess Learia granted a spark of divine fire to the beasts who would become humanity. In doing so, she was cast out from the home of the gods, which mortals call Jupiter. She is now worshiped as God by the Church of Law. *** The Voice of Fire is known only to a select few: monks and sages. Angels, the machines of creation, work in the service of the Voice. Only a small number of mortals, called Vocists, would se...

Since I've now been running Hagfish Hall for a few sessions, I wanted to have an answer when players ask who their clerics follow. Stats are for od&d, with some Saint spells being brought in from B/X. Declaring Alignment Clerics are learned folk. Often they have spent considerable time sequestered away in abbeys, in pursuit of truths. This can lead to indecisiveness. Clerics need not declare for a particular alignment until they reach 7th level, however doing so earlier has its benefits. When a Cleric declares for an alignment, they must choose a Saint to follow. Each Saint grants access to a particular spell or ability. You don't need to be able to cast a Saint's spell yet to declare for them. Once you have declared for a particular Saint, you are bound to them. Switching to a different Saint is time consuming, switching across alignment is dangerous. Clerics of Chaos are able to reverse their spells, in order to cause harm. A Good Monk by Wilhelm Von Kaulback, re-clou...

While I was happy with the last two session logs, I felt like the signal-to-noise ratio was sort of low, so I'm trying to change that this time around. We did two delves this week, with a little downtime turn in-between.   The Party Daevon , a Veteran. Polearm, chain + shield. Isabella , an Acolyte. Pike, chain. Usually carries the lantern. Dandelion , a Medium. Sword, chain + shield. Dandelion's Map Delve I Date: January 2nd. Gross weather; low visibility, alternating between rain and flurries. The party return to the dungeon! Venturing inside, they are greeted by a mocking smile from the painting hanging overhead. Her expression suggests: "How have you not made it deeper?" In the interest of caution, attempts are made to listen at the eastern and western doors. The dungeon rebukes them, [with clock starting at 20, a 6 explodes into another 6, and then into a 5] for a flash moment, the lady in the painting seems to laugh. Fearing an approaching encounter, the party ...

I hope everyone's holidays have been good! I've been sitting cozy by fires and playing lots of Demon's Souls. It feels a little bit weird writing a year-end blog post seeing as my blog didn't even exist for all of 2024, but I had some thoughts I wanted to organize. Firstly, thank you for all the support and excitement I've received for this blog, especially over on Bluesky, and within the diy/osr blogosphere. It's been really encouraging! Thank you everyone <3 New years resolutions? Not exactly, but I do have a few things I'd like to do for the blog next year. Write more. Write more for games. Write more personally. Make more things people can use in their games. Play more games. Post about those games. Get better at writing session logs. Games I want to run in 2025: Keep running Hagfish Hall. Ideally finish it, if that's even viable? Right now it's 100 rooms across multiple levels, with some potential to expand further. Classic Traveler. Wolves U...

If you missed it, you can find session 1 here ! My group returned to Hagfish Hall this week, for our first full-session delve. I also tried out some downtime mechanics, and made my first checks for dungeon restock. The systems for both of these were adapted for od&d from the Serpent Song Hymnal , by I Cast Light! . Without further ado...   The Party Last week, the Long-Night came and went. Cennich was decorated with paper lanterns, and all gathered round their hearths to tell ghoul-stories. A member of the courier's guild, clad in red trim, brought a small sleigh of parcels for the people of Cennich. Some of these were for our party. [i prompted this as a creative exercise prior to play]. Daevon , a Veteran. Received a mace from a colleague, alongside a paranoid letter warning about the dangers of skeletons. Isabella , an Acolyte. Received a zweihander from an unknown source. Dandelion , a Medium. Received a bright yellow scarf from her cousin. The Delve Date: December 26. Fres...

Over the last little bit, I've been really wanting to try out the Shock system from Worlds Without Number in od&d. I think it would pair well with weapon-as-initiative , and add some punch to larger weapons. Basically, in WWN, every weapon has a shock score, written as #/AC, representing an amount of automatic damage dealt even if the weapon fails to hit a target, as long as the target's AC is equal to or less then the listed one. In od&d, all weapons deal 1d6. I like to play it so that two-handing a weapon deals 2d6 drop-the-lowest. Generally, I don't like to restrict which weapons can or must be two-handed, because I personally find the choice of two-handing vs. holding a light source vs. holding a shield to be very compelling moment-to-moment during game. If you wanted, you could also treat the Shock score as a minimum damage dealt for weapons, even on a hit, to reduce underwhelming hit rolls. The values listed below are adapted from Worlds Without Number, ...