Barrowmaze – How I Manage the Game

[I received a request on the Barrowmaze FaceBook page asking for a post about how I manage the game.  This is that post.]

Props to the Writers
Barrowmaze has pretty much everything you need to run it.  There is enough setting to get you started, yet self-contained enough you can run it by itself or slot it into an existing campaign world.  I’m running it stand-alone and the amount of heavy lifting I had to do was virtually nil.  Props to Greg Gillespie for writing Barrowmaze and making it as complete as possible.  Mechanisms for digging up covered barrows, how long it takes to break into a barrow, and magic items that fit the theme are all present and up front.  While I might quibble about the order some things are in [side effect of being a professional tech writer], everything you need is there, including things you might not have thought of.

Also, I’d like to thank Omer G. Joel for posting HIS session notes about running Barrowmaze using ACKS.  It inspired me to do the same.  I even lifted his map as a handout because it is useful, attractive, and my drawing skills are nowhere near as good.  Sadly, he stopped posting about his campaign in March with no explanation.  [Although I suspect he is writing material for his publishing company.]

Between Sessions
Barrowmaze has material for restocking cleared sections of the actual dungeon, which will keep players on their toes.  Until Session 12, I only had recourse to this material once, when the PCs entered Barrow 12 and found their first entrance into the actual dungeon and promptly retreated after fighting four skeletons.  As I write this, I have to refresh my memory on this content by re-reading it and implementing it, so I don’t have a lot to say about it yet other than it is nice for it to be there.  Supplying these kinds of mechanisms is why I like Barrowmaze so much.

I also write up my session notes blog post between sessions and set it to post Tuesdays.  I’ll discuss my notes below, so I’ll skip it here.

Setting the Table
I have the ACKS rules in hardcopy and a PDF, which is very handy.  I place flags in the hardcopy for the tables I need to reference often (Monster To-Hit Table, Monster XP, Magic Item Cost, and the surprisingly popular Mortality Table).  I printed packets of the rules for character creation, proficiencies, equipment and hirelings, and the spell lists for the casters.  These are kept handy on the table as there is a surprising amount of rules in those packets that we don’t have memorized.

I don’t use a screen and roll my dice where the players can see the results [Exceptions: monster hit points and checks for wandering monsters, both of which they’ll learn about soon enough].  This keeps me honest and removes the temptation to try and craft the events at the table.

I have a 6x9 notebook that I keep my session notes in.  Each session starts on a fresh, right-hand page with a clear facing page as well [I keep random notes there, time passed, and the party marching order].  At the top of the right-hand page I write the session number and the Real World date.  Underneath that I list the players at the table, starting from my left and going clock-wise around the table.  [This is why the order of the PC list at the top of the blog posts shifts sometimes – the players have adjusted where they’re sitting for various reasons.]  Next to each player name I write the name of the character they are playing that night.  This shifts as PCs die or are laid up with extensive bed rest [as per the results on the Mortality Table].  I also make note of their character level and class so I can do a quick average of levels.  This tells me which encounter tables I need to roll on during the session.

The Session
When the players are at the table [and I’m ready], I’ll ask if anyone has left-over business from the last game session.  I’ll tell them the current in-game date and where they left off.  Usually they are in Helix, but if they needed a casting of Restore Life and Limb, they will still be in Ironguard Motte.  If that is the case, they might donate some coin for additional healing at the Temple of St. Ygg [if they are still down hit points from last session] or do some shopping as I put the only bookshop in the area in Ironguard Motte and it also handles scrolls.  [A surprising number of scholars are also spell casters of some sort, so it was a natural melding of two otherwise marginal businesses.]

If the players are in Helix and need healing, they have several options: Shrine of St. Ygg, a local Physicker, or one of the party members with the Healing proficiency twice [making them a Physicker].  Who they use depends on what they want to spend and how much time they are willing to wait.  We often scroll time a day or so for this.  I note down what days pass [if any] and roughly what the PCs did each day.  The rest is mostly hand-waved as “adventure doesn’t happen in town” – something I picked up running West Marches-style campaigns, which in some ways Barrowmaze is.  This might change if the players make use of the domain rules in ACKS, but for the moment all adventure is out in the moors.

Once the players spend whatever time they want in town [and have stated which NPCs they want to hire], I make note of the current date, tell them, and then read the description of the moors in the Barrowmaze book.  It’s barely a paragraph and I read it with plodding tone to impress the oppressiveness of the moors [and to tell everyone we are officially starting play].  I’ve made some modifications to it based on the fact that the players have led packs of laborers and guards through here, creating a bit of a trail.  Then I check to see what they encounter on the way to the barrows.

There is a bit of art around this.  If we’re running late, I might elide over this so we can get straight to the meat of the session.  I have them roll surprise and then I tell them that they spot [because with keen-eyed elves around, who gets surprised anymore?] whatever I rolled at a distance and see if they want to interact or not.  The players have learned these encounters result in no loot, which is the largest portion of XP in ACKS, so they usually avoid the fight if I give them the chance.

As an aside, I didn’t have stats for Axe Beaks the first time I rolled them [I do now – heh, heh, heh].  The Animated Statues had recently been released and were known to be wandering the moors, so rather than spend time looking for stats I told them they found the pulped remains of giant birds, clearly attacked by the statues.  This kept the statues a current threat and let me pass on the encounter.  With Tunrock being played again [and still carrying the glowing sword from that barrow], I’ll bring the issue with the statues to a head sometime soon and give the players a chance to face the statues on a more even footing.

The Barrowmaze book states that the barrows are a half-day from Helix.  Depending on whether or not they had an encounter and how that went, the adventurers usually arrive between 11:00 AM and Noon [they get an early start to maximize exploration time].  They have developed a standard procedure where they never stay past 4:00 PM, giving them 4-5 hours to explore.  Often this is more than they need.

Once they arrive, I start the clock.  In my notebook, on the left-hand page, I write “Time” and make hash marks to tally time as it passes.  At first I just tallied time normally in groups of 5, but I realized the PCs have to rest every 6th Turn per the rules and adjusted my tally so each row was one hour, meaning a group of 5 marks and then a single mark.  This also made it easier for me to track the number of hours they PCs had been on site.

So searching for traps or secret doors takes a Turn, which gets a tally mark.  If different PCs search for different things at the same time, I only make one tally mark, but this means the group is spread around the room during this time, which they just learned can be fatal.  Combats usually take up a Turn as well, encompassing the time the fighting actually takes and some recovery time to catch their breath.  Smashing the stone slab sealing each barrow takes 2 Turns per the Barrowmaze text [again, very handy to have that spelled out in the text] so two tally marks for that.

[NOTE: This also triggers two extra rolls for wandering monsters, so before I announce the time has passed, I make the rolls.  Early on I had to take back some time because both dice indicated wandering monsters after I had announced they had broken into the barrow.  Important lesson in timing there.]

Once the players have done things for 5 tally marks, I announce they have to rest.  I make this mark in red ink so it is obvious they’ve rested.  The rests also provide a sense of time passing, which helps the verisimilitude, and the players often take the time to discuss what they are doing next.  There have been times the players have checked when the next rest is when contemplating a course of action and taken a rest early if something they were contemplating would be interrupted.  Healing with the Healing proficiency also takes a Turn [as opposed to magic, which is one action].

The players make sketch maps as they explore.  When combat happens, we don’t use miniatures as I try to explain where things are and how things progress.  Fights in doorways sometimes require using dice to show exactly where people are standing relative to each other and the walls.  The groups marching order is a line, so until they say they crowd the doorway, I assume they are still in a line.  Not everyone makes that same assumption, so clarification helps.

While the players are doing things, I make notes hitting the high points.  My notes are mostly to jog my memory later and to record specific values [like treasure found].  Often I list a barrow number and then a sentence or two of what happened and if anyone died.  When the PCs descend into the actual Barrowmaze, I just keep a list of the rooms they go through unless something unusual happens and then I write down some details.  I use abbreviations a lot in my notes.

At some point the PCs decide to leave. Either they have enough loot for the day or [more often] they are running low on hit points and out of healing magic.  The encounter on the way back to town is often a bit more critical, especially when a rival adventuring party pops up, so I usually run this encounter.  ACKS has rules for evading an encounter and sometimes the PCs are successful and sometimes the fight happens anyways.

Wrap Up
Once the players make it back to Helix we deal with healing and whether or not they have to go to Ironguard Motte for a casting [or two] of Restore Life and Limb.  Then I tally loot and monster XP, divide by the number of surviving players, work out the values for +0%, +5%, and +10% [noting who earns which], and then hand out XP.  If characters level, I make note of it.  I can always double-check XP totals if someone forgets whether or not they added XP last session.

If a character died and the body was not retrieved, that player is responsible for having their next character ready by the beginning of the next session.  If anyone is doing things in town, like, say, having a manor house built [cough, Quillian, cough], we’ll discuss that and work out any details between games [or at the beginning of the next session].

Writing Up the Session Notes
So a couple days later I sit down with my sketchy notes and my semi-reliable memory to type up the blog posts.  I reference the room descriptions in Barrowmaze for details and to get the order of things correct.  I put things into a simplified narrative, explaining things caused by the dice or the rules where necessary as asides.  There may be a little embroidery here and there to make the story flow, but pretty much everything in the session notes actually happened.

While I use the Real World calendar for the dates, I came up with my own day-names.  I would have done my own months as well, but that would have just obscured things.  Using actual month names makes some implications about the weather and when the sun rises and sets.  The year naming based on the name of the king and how long he’s reigned seemed to fit better than an arbitrary number.  That will eventually change by the way, I just haven’t decided exactly when.  I’m sure something the PCs do will suggest a good time for that to happen.



So, Rafael, does that help?