The Grumpy Old Man character class

This came to me as I woke up this AM. So I had to write it down. And share. Sorry about that.

A friend was lamenting the impending passage into dotage with the purchase of a pair of readers. Welcome to the club, dude.

Oh look, time for a new pair of readers

Which must have inspired my morning meditations on that neighborhood terror, the Grumpy Old Man.

A dynamic duo for the ages

Anyway, I'm not sure how many of us get characters to name level/retirement age. Mine seem to get retired early in the depths of some labyrinth. But I'm sure it happens. And while one may aim to build a domain, lord over some vassals, and make a name for themselves, I'm sure that plenty of others are happy to hang up the spurs or spellbooks and just tend a garden, rock on the front porch, and complain about the kids and their too-loud lute music. 

So bask in the glory that is the convertible character class, the Grumpy Old Man. Simply take your 10th level PC, change their class to G.O.M., and park them on their porch.

Get off my lawn!

Ok, well, if someone askes nicely, they may step off to totter out and help out with a local problem.  Bulettes in the field, dragon eating sheep, necromancer defiling the graveyard. But don't ask much, because it's Tuesday, and that's the Early Bird Special at the pub.  

They're tough, they know stuff, and they are not ones to suffer fools. And don't you dare track across the lawn. They just mowed it.

Hmmf!

(Updated 15/5 - minor edits to character description and immunities)

Rats!

 Hidely-ho, neighbors!

It's been another quiet month on the blog-front. Had a couple things in the works, then JB over at B/X Blackrazor had to go and post up an offering of a contest.

The theme, "Out of the Sewer," as in rats... Everyone's favorite ubiquitous dungeon denizen... 

So off to scrounge a map that will fit a rodent-inspired adventure and see what my boring brain can come up with.

Idea #1: Of course, rats have many connotations besides just our favorite plague-wielding rodents. Definition#2 in old Miriam-Webster is a deserter, or informer.

"Viktor Pacovi has deserted Wringcaster Keep and fled with the Castellan's sword..."

Wherein our heroes are called to judiciously, or extra-judiciously, take out a deserter before he has a chance to spill the beans on the Keep's defenses to the highest bidder. Of course I've got him holed up in a very well-defended compound. One where walking in the front door is a good opportunity for Many Bad Things to happen to a careless party. But don't worry, there's another rat, er, informer who is happy to share intel with you. How good it is, is up for debate...

Dastardly!

Don't worry, there are a couple of back ways in, and depending on how generous, or honest, the informer was feeling, the PCs may actually learn of which one is the better option. In the end, it's a tactical dungeon crawl.

But with muskrats!

Download 'Clearing the Warren' here

Then, 25 days into the month and after futzing around with margins and single words for entirely too long, I woke up to more ideas. Of course. Because rats propagate. 

Vobleavira Haven Revision

Well, after the events recounted in last week's post, it was time to lift the hood on the adventure and do some tuning. 

Spoilers aplenty below...

A quick visit to The Mausoleum of Matias

Well, I have word that Jackson has recovered enough hit points to return home, so that's some good news for his recovery. 

In the meantime, a quick stocking exercise of "The Mausoleum of Matias" that he posted a couple weeks ago.

An inviting 5-room format

The mausoleum, per the creator, is heavily trapped (3 in the 5-6 areas), with the true tomb hidden behind a secret door. So a good space for the player characters to defile, er, explore. And, as I've done in a few other stocking exercises, the big-bad may be a threat or potential benefactor, depending on how they are played, and how the party interacts with them. 

Feel free to pay your respects at The Mausoleum of Matias. 

Vobleavira Haven Play Report and Revision

So I attended our revived local con, Dragonflight, after a year's hiatus due to <REDACTED>. I signed up for a few games, but felt the offerings were thin in the RPG front (due, in part to the absence of organized play supported by the current editions of the game).

Nothing else to do but step up and run a game. I set up a 3-hour window on Sunday morning running my B/X-OSE dungeon-crawl Vobleavira Haven. It's been a while since I looked at the adventure, so I reviewed it, and decided to tweak the adventure for the game - adding a few details, and creating a bit more story to make the adventure less of a "wander around and steal stuff."

Spoilers below:

First of all, apparently adding this:

... is becoming a recurring theme via another recent adventure....

Besides, it was a Halloween game. Gotta have something spooky.