Meepo's Domain

Snapshot of my notes that I printed out based on the Retired Adventurer’s Better Notes series of blog posts . These were very helpful all the way through the adventure.   Campaign Report I am trying here to look back on the campaign as a whole and reflect on it in a more general sense. It won't be focused on the particulars of each session or the details - I'm trying to provide a "big picture" view of things. General Thoughts Overall, The Darkness Over Nijmauwrgen was not what I was expecting, but still a very good adventure. A lot of my frustration with it came from that mismatch in expectations - I had no idea I was getting into a 15+ session long campaign. That said, I took it as a challenge and I'm glad I did. My skills as an RPG referee have undoubtedly improved over the course of this adventure, and the longer narrative arc allowed for a lot of immersion and memorable character moments. The dark humour and Lovecraft flavour both come through strongly in t...

Finale (played 03/09/2024) System: The Black Sword Hack Adventure: The Darkness Over Nijmauwrgen (from The Chaos Crier issue #0 ) Players: Faaya (Capingreen) , Kvam (Janitor911) GM: Me (Feirsteax ) Session length: 4h ish    Incomplete snippet of campaign notes taken using OneNote for this adventure. Explosions in the Deep The players ingeniously brought a big barrel of gunpowder with them to blast open the portcullis below the temple and were therefore able to enter the evil Black Sun Temple from below! This did not spare them, however, from a cruel ambushing at the hands of four Deep Infiltrators of the Black Sun, who had been tailing them in secret for some time now. These four assassins were quite brutal, and through the battle, managed to kill all of the player characters’ allies (including poor old Bonifacio , the dog-shaver and secret hit-man for hire). The rules for inter-NPC combat in Black Sword Hack mean that PC allies will take d6 damage four t...

System: The Black Sword Hack Adventure: The Darkness Over Nijmauwrgen (from The Chaos Crier issue #0 ) Players: Faaya (Capingreen) , Kvam (Janitor911) GM: Me (Feirsteax ) Session length: 3h ish   Off The Rails A lot transpired over these five sessions. I thought sesh 9 would be the big rebel meeting to prepare for a raid on the temple. But the players decided the morning of the meeting would be a good time to pull off a quick prison break. So that led to 3 more sessions of temple crawling under extreme cover. Cover got blown at the end of a session, very good cliffhanger. Both PCs stuck in a dark underground cult hole, one of them drugged up and drowsy. The other tied up as a false prisoner (her cover).   tldraw: a fantastic resource for collaborative mapping Eventually they got out, not without casualties and chaos being unleashed. Prisoners were all freed, but only some escaped. Templars, cultists and priests were all going haywire; killing, fleeing, screaming...

A Man on the Road (played 08/05/2024) System: The Black Sword Hack Adventure: The Darkness Over Nijmauwrgen (from The Chaos Crier issue #0 ) Players: Faaya (Capingreen) , Kvam (Janitor911) GM: Me (Feirsteax ) Session length: 4h ish   Map of the Known Realms – an item in Lady Estabana’s inventory.   Report Last session, the party established contact the Thieves Guild, fought a bunch of violent fish-man hybrids , and learned that the Templars were getting more and more suspicious. I reminded the players of this to highlight to them that their Anonymity Die is dangerously low. It is at a d4 now, and if it goes any lower, they will be attacked on sight by the Templars. Meanwhile, Alcantor was getting ready to come back home. His memory was cured by Duke Taineri in his necropolis, south of the city. As Alcantor got on his horse, Lady Estabana , a noble Knight of the Dominion, appeared on the crest of a nearby hill. She was riding a huge stallion which ca...

The Thieves Guild (played 12/04/2024) System: The Black Sword Hack Adventure: The Darkness Over Nijmauwrgen (from The Chaos Crier issue #0 ) Players: Faaya (Capingreen) , Kvam (Janitor911) GM: Me (Feirsteax ) Session length: 2h30m ish   Report After reading Grove of the Gourd Dwarf’s report of his Mothership session a few weeks ago, I have been inspired to keep this one brief! We left off last time after the party met with Mazelius, the king’s representative. He sent a crow (raven, pigeon, something winged) over to the encampment of Knights just outside the city. The crow held a message telling them to bring the ancient trident, Roodr , to the old necropolis south of the city, where Alcantor of Zisyphus was resting up, having his memory curse fixed. Another job ticked off the to-do list, our terrible twosome (and the mighty Sfen ) headed off to the One-Eyed Cat, a tavern that held a secret of some kind. It turned out the Thieves Guild leader, Zvoorinius , was hole...

System: Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition) Adventure: Paper Chase Players: Mum & Dad GM: Me Session length: 3h   The Starter Set This was the first time my mum and dad have played Call of Cthulhu. It isn't their first time playing a pencil and paper roleplaying game, however. A couple of years ago I ran The Portal Under the Stars for them one evening and they really enjoyed the chaos of it. Back then, I didn't give them full character sheets as I didn't want to overwhelm them with mechanics. This time, though, I gave them some of the pre-gens included in the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set to choose from and made photocopies for them to use. The 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu Starter Set has some really cool adventures in it. If you want to know more about it, this video review is great. My good friend Capingreen bought me the game as a gift last Christmas. After reading through it and playing the solo adventure, I hadn't got round to playing it with anyone els...