So anyway, I don't have a group to play this old crap with...hehe...and my kids aren' t quite old enough yet. Is 4 years old and 2 years old too young?...ha! So, I decided to fire up one of the very few solo (solitaire) modules for these old D&D systems: "Ghost of Lion Castle."
Well, it just is easier if you roll with one of the 5 or 6 prerolled characters they have in the module, mainly due to spell choices, etc...they have to limit them to make the "choose your own path" thing work, ya'know? So I went with the best (IMO) choice they had, a 3rd level Elf (they were natural fighter/magic-users back then)...and yes, Elf was a class, not just a race...heheh...so was Dwarf and Halfling...nice, eh?
Anyway, this Elf blew.
He (notice I didn't say *I*) died twice before I even got into the freakin castle!
First to a Giant Fire Beetle (7 hp, BTW), and next, following a quick "reroll"
, to a Rock Baboon (9 hp).
Now these 2 mobs were just random encounters, based on some die rolls and tables...just saying it could have been worse.
At any rate, my stud Elf finally made his way into the joint, after trashing a Gnoll (9 hp)....yay! Oh, it still took me down to 2 hp...so not so great an accomplishment...ah well.
So I rested...subtracting 1 ration from my pack (only 9 left!
), rolling for more random encounters while I rested (none, wshew!), and then got to add a whopping 1 hp (OMG!) back to my total....so I'm ready to go with a massive 3 hp now (I have 14 normally, but that damn Gnoll beat the hell outta me before I smacked him good)...jeesh!I decided to rest a few times. F@#$ those rations. I'll find something to eat inside...right?...right????
Anyway, I got hot lead poured on me (twice!) for a sweet 1d6 damage for failing my saving throw vs wands (twice!), got nailed by a glowing arrow trap for 1d6+1 damage - no save, got drunk by some aroma in a Brewery Room (lowering my attack rolls by 1 for the rest of the crawl), got a stone slab dropped on me (thankfully my 12 STR allowed me catch it...no damage
), got blasted by some oven heat (huh?) in a Bakery Room for 1d4 damage - no save, and just missed getting my dork chopped off by a swing blade trap in another room, making that save vs wands.All in all, I have only gained 20 XP so far, and am ready to rest again (need that 1 hp back
), before I continue. Wish me luck!
Still it was fun, even if I did suck.
Check these stats out:
STR 12
INT 17
WIS 11
DEX 9
CON 10
CHA 15 (should have made a house rule/class...Pally
)Wearing Chainmail and a Shield. Oh and my "magical" items consist of a Sword +1 and a Rope of Climbing...nice, eh?
4 comments:
You know, I picked up this exact same module from the used bin at my local hobby shop a few weeks back.
I was going to run a review of it on my blog but I'm on my third pre-gened character running through it and don't really have the urge to continue.
Those rations do run out quick and the save vs. wands checks get failed an awful amount of times...
Hope you have better luck than I did!
Heya Amityville Mike. My first time doing any kinda of blog at all, so I was surprised to see a comment...so thanx!
I just threw down some thoughts and past ramblings of mine here to start it off.
Not sure how much content I will ever have here, but I do like perusing other blogs on old school gaming, so we'll see if this one ever grows legs.
Again, thanx for checkin' it out.
On the solitaire module, yeah it was fun just starting to dork around with it. I hope to continue with it, but man, it sure does seem like a lot of resting will be needed...ugh. Thank the gods I have that Rope of Climbing, though...I may need to toast it up and eat it, once my rations run out. ;^]
Never played this solo adventure but I played a lot of the Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures.
These had the same basic problem that all solo games do:
1) There is no role-playing making them rather pointless exercises except for leveling-up your character.
2) Everyone cheated. If you died because of a trap or an encounter, you simply carried on as if you had survived. No one every ripped up their character sheets and generated another character.
Still, when I was 13 (back in '81 and I had a ZX81 as well) it was the only way for me to get taste the wonderful world of roleplaying.
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