Growing Old Gaming With AI — Still Rolling the Dice

Well, here's something I never thought I'd be writing about when I started this blog.

I've been playing roleplaying games for a very long time. I've created worlds, written adventures, designed rules, rolled more dice than I care to count, and sent a fair number of unfortunate adventurers to meet their gods along the way.

Like many of us who've been at this hobby for decades, I've seen a lot of changes. Some wonderful, some questionable, and a few that have left me scratching my head and wondering what on earth everyone was thinking.

But recently I've been experimenting with something that has genuinely surprised me.

Artificial Intelligence.

Yes, that AI. The one everyone's either terribly excited about or convinced is going to bring about the end of civilisation. Possibly both before lunchtime.

And I have to say, it's been quite an adventure.

A New Way to Keep Playing

A little background first.

For various health reasons, including tremors that make some of the more fiddly physical aspects of our hobby increasingly difficult, I've found myself rather limited in what I can comfortably do. I'm also fairly socially isolated these days, which doesn't exactly make getting a group of adventurers around the table particularly easy.

The imagination is still there, thank goodness. The ideas certainly haven't stopped coming, and I still love creating games, characters, worlds and adventures.

It's just that sometimes the body isn't terribly cooperative.

Anyone who's had to deal with chronic illness will probably understand the frustration of still wanting to do all the things you enjoy but finding the practical business of actually doing them increasingly difficult.

And that's where AI has started to make a rather unexpected difference.

Not by doing everything for me, but by helping me do things I might otherwise have struggled to do at all.

My Very Own Digital Referee

One of my first great discoveries was that an AI could actually referee a roleplaying adventure.

Now, before anyone starts sharpening their pencils and preparing a strongly worded response, I'm not suggesting that it can replace a good human referee. Far from it.

A good referee brings personality, judgement, humour, creativity and that wonderful ability to look you straight in the eye while describing something truly horrible that's about to happen to your character.

But AI can do something rather remarkable.

It can sit down with you, so to speak, at practically any time of the day or night, and play.

I've been using it to referee adventures using my own rules, including Lost Tales: Dungeon Delves and, more recently, First Light, a smaller, simpler roleplaying game I've been developing.

And sometimes it's been absolutely wonderful.

I've explored forgotten ruins, followed suspicious tracks through dark forests, investigated strange disappearances, argued with uncooperative characters and rescued people from some rather unpleasant situations.

My roadwarden Mara, for instance, has been wandering around Keldenwood trying to discover what's happened to a number of missing villagers and what dreadful thing might be lurking in the woods.

What has delighted me isn't simply the adventure itself, but the unexpected little moments that emerge during play.

A character says something I wasn't expecting. A clue leads somewhere interesting. An apparently insignificant encounter suddenly develops into something rather important.

And occasionally a mule decides that someone's cloak looks like a perfectly good lunch.

Thistle, I'm looking at you.

Those moments can produce a genuine feeling of surprise and happiness. I'm sitting there grinning like an idiot because something completely unexpected has happened in a make-believe world.

And for a little while I'm not thinking about what I can't do.

I'm simply playing.

That's worth quite a lot.

Of Course, It Sometimes Makes a Complete Pig's Ear of Things

Now, I'd be doing everyone a disservice if I pretended this all works perfectly.

It most certainly does not.

AI referees can forget things, confuse characters, invent information they shouldn't know, and occasionally behave as though they've had a rather substantial blow to the head.

We've caught characters knowing things they couldn't possibly know. I've had to correct the referee when it wandered away from the established rules or started making assumptions about what my character intended to do.

And, rather more frustratingly, I've had portions of an ongoing adventure disappear from the conversation.

There's nothing quite like spending hours exploring a mysterious location, rescuing its inhabitants and uncovering its secrets, only to discover that your referee appears to have misplaced several chapters of the story.

Somewhere, presumably, there's a digital filing cabinet containing the missing adventures of several thoroughly confused heroes.

But these failures have taught me something important.

An AI referee needs rules for refereeing, not just rules for the game.

It needs to understand that the players make their own decisions. That characters don't magically know things they haven't learned. That dice rolls matter, even when the results are inconvenient.

And perhaps most importantly, that the world should respond to what the players do rather than simply pushing them towards a predetermined story.

That discovery has become a big part of my game-design work.

Building Games With a Very Enthusiastic Assistant

I've also been using AI as a collaborator in creating and refining my own roleplaying systems.

And this is where things have become particularly interesting.

I can have an idea for a mechanic, discuss it, explore the possibilities, put it into a draft, and then actually test it through play.

Sometimes the idea works beautifully.

Sometimes it collapses the moment an adventurer tries something particularly foolish.

Which, let's face it, is usually about five minutes after the adventure begins.

We've spent a good deal of time developing Lost Tales and First Light, experimenting with opposed dice rolls, degrees of success, consequences, danger, character abilities and the business of keeping the game moving.

What's especially useful is the ability to brainstorm.

I can throw out a half-formed idea, receive a response, disagree with it, change direction completely, and explore something else.

It's rather like having an endlessly patient gaming companion who doesn't mind discussing the finer points of a two-dice mechanic for the forty-seventh time.

Although I suspect even an AI occasionally wishes I'd make up my mind.

The real discoveries often come during playtesting.

An apparently sensible rule turns out to be awkward. A situation exposes a hole in the system. A character finds a perfectly reasonable solution that the adventure never anticipated.

And we go back and improve it.

There have been plenty of failures along the way. I've had revisions that fixed one problem while undoing something we'd already sorted out. Beautifully illustrated documents have occasionally emerged from a rules update looking considerably less beautiful than when they went in.

Apparently it's possible to improve the mechanics and accidentally demolish the decorating.

Still, we're learning.

And there's a tremendous satisfaction in taking something from a vague idea to a playable game, particularly when you've helped test it yourself.

Pictures, Stories, Edits and Other Adventures

Another great pleasure has been using AI to help turn adventures into things I can share.

After a game, we can take the events of play and turn them into an adventure account. We can experiment with different styles of storytelling, revise the writing, and create illustrations of memorable moments.

I've always loved the rough old illustrations that appeared in early gaming books and fanzines.

You know the sort. Pencil sketches, slightly wonky figures, sinister-looking monsters, and just enough detail to get the imagination going.

Trying to persuade an AI image generator to produce something genuinely rough and amateurish has been an adventure in itself.

"Make it rougher."

"More amateurish."

"No, not THAT amateurish."

"Somewhere between the last two, please."

Who would have thought that getting a computer to draw badly, but in just the right way, could be so difficult?

But when it gets it right, there's something wonderful about seeing a scene you've imagined, and perhaps actually played through, suddenly appear as an illustration.

It's another way of bringing those imaginary worlds to life.

The Lantern Bearers Guild

More recently I've been exploring another possibility.

Using AI to help create videos about roleplaying games.

This has led to my YouTube project, The Lantern Bearers Guild.

With the help of AI tools, I've been developing scripts, creating a virtual presenter named Rowan Grey, producing videos, editing, preparing subtitles, making thumbnails and sharing ideas about solo and cooperative gaming.

It's been quite a learning experience.

There have been some very satisfying successes, and some extraordinarily annoying technical failures.

Files go missing. Edits don't behave as expected. Something that worked perfectly yesterday suddenly decides it has other plans. And occasionally a simple change turns into a lengthy exercise in persuading several pieces of software to cooperate.

All while trying not to spend unnecessary money or AI video credits.

I suspect there's a little goblin somewhere inside the machinery whose sole purpose is to make the simplest jobs as complicated as possible.

But despite all that, I've been able to create and share things that I might otherwise never have attempted.

And that's the important part.

Finding My Way Back to the Gaming Community

Perhaps the most significant thing about all this isn't actually the technology.

It's what the technology is helping me do.

Being socially isolated can slowly distance you from the people, activities and communities that once formed a big part of your life.

You don't necessarily stop being interested in those things. You don't stop having ideas or wanting to contribute.

It's just that the opportunities become fewer, and the practical difficulties become greater.

AI has given me another way to participate.

I can continue writing adventures, designing games, experimenting with mechanics, creating illustrations, making videos and putting my work out into the world.

Through this blog, YouTube and my gaming projects, I can share ideas with other gamers and creatives, invite discussion, learn from other people's experiences and remain involved in a hobby that's meant so much to me for so many years.

I'm not suggesting that talking to an AI is the same as spending an evening around a table with good friends.

It isn't.

And I wouldn't want it to be.

The human connections are still the important part.

But if AI can help me create something that another gamer enjoys, starts a conversation, encourages someone to try a different approach, or perhaps inspires them to make something of their own, then it's doing something rather worthwhile.

It's helping me find my way back into the conversation.

The Bit That Really Surprised Me

I think what has surprised me most is the sheer enjoyment I've found in collaborating this way.

There have been moments of real wonder.

Not because I believe the machine is some sort of magical creative genius, but because of what becomes possible when I combine my own imagination, experience and ideas with a tool that can help me explore them.

I might begin with a simple notion for a ruined tower, an odd creature, a game mechanic or an adventure hook.

A few hours later I could be exploring that tower, discovering what lives beneath it, testing the rules that govern the adventure, and preparing an account of what happened.

Sometimes the results are dreadful.

Sometimes they're hilarious.

And sometimes something happens that genuinely takes me by surprise.

Those are the moments I treasure.

It's also made me think a little differently about creativity itself.

I don't see the AI as the author of my imagination. The worlds, the choices, the things I find interesting, the things I reject and the direction I want to take are still mine.

It's a collaborator, an assistant, a sometimes unreliable referee and, on occasion, a rather eccentric sounding board.

I still need to make decisions, exercise judgement, recognise mistakes and know when something simply isn't good enough.

In fact, I've discovered that working successfully with AI involves considerably more thinking than merely asking it to make something and accepting whatever comes back.

The trick is to remain the creative force behind the work.

And to never be afraid to tell the machine that it's talking nonsense.

Still Growing Old, Still Gaming

I don't know where all this will lead.

AI is developing so quickly that something which seems remarkable today may be commonplace next year.

There are certainly some very real concerns surrounding the technology, particularly where creative work and the livelihoods of artists and writers are involved. Those discussions matter, and I don't pretend to have all the answers.

All I can really speak about is my own experience.

For someone who loves creating and playing games, but whose circumstances have made those things increasingly difficult, AI has opened up some doors that I thought might be closing.

It's helped me keep playing.

It's helped me keep creating.

And, perhaps most importantly, it's helped me keep sharing that creativity with other people.

I'm still making mistakes, still experimenting, still getting things wrong and occasionally managing to produce something I'm rather pleased with.

In other words, not all that different from the way I've always approached gaming.

There's still plenty I want to try, plenty I want to learn, and more than a few monsters waiting patiently to make someone's life miserable.

And I fully intend to keep going.

After all, just because we're growing old doesn't mean we have to stop gaming.

Sometimes we simply need to find another way to roll the dice.

Until next time, happy gaming!

And if you've been experimenting with AI in your own games, whether as a referee, writing assistant, world-builder or something completely different, I'd love to hear about it.

The successes, the failures, the unexpected discoveries, and particularly those wonderful moments when something happens that you never saw coming.

There's light enough for everyone at the Lantern Bearers Guild.

THE MOON-BEAST OF KELDENWOOD

This post was created with the help of AI

THE MOON-BEAST OF KELDENWOOD

The Chronicle of Mara Blackthorn, Former Roadwarden

An account of courage, dark enchantments, forgotten places, and the mercy of an unlikely hero.

I. THE SHADOW UPON KELDENWOOD

In the autumn of a troubled year, when the leaves lay thick upon the northern roads and mist gathered beneath the ancient trees, there came to the village of Keldenwood a wanderer named Mara Blackthorn.

Once a Roadwarden, she now travelled where fortune and honest employment led her, bearing a sword at her side and a simple conviction in her heart: that a person ought to do as little harm as possible in a world already burdened with suffering.

Keldenwood was a place beneath a shadow.

Travellers had vanished from its roads. Strange tracks, like those of a monstrous stag, appeared in the forest. Men whispered of enormous antlers glimpsed through the trees and of a terrible creature that walked beneath the moon.

At the Fox and Lantern Inn, Mara learned of a merchant named Edric Venn, whose caravan guard, Tomas Reed, had disappeared upon the northern road. Twenty silver pennies were offered for his safe return.

There too she met Bram Hask, a woodcutter bearing dreadful wounds inflicted by the mysterious beast.

For a silver penny, Bram agreed to guide her into the forest.

Thus began a quest that would lead Mara far beyond the recovery of one missing man.

II. THE PRISONERS OF THE HUNTING LODGE

At first light, Mara and Bram followed the trail of the creature through the ancient woodland.

There were monstrous hoofprints, strange impressions of human boots, and broken branches high above the ground. Following these signs, Mara eventually discovered an old hunting lodge hidden deep among the trees.

Within its shuttered walls she found Tomas Reed, bound and imprisoned.

Approaching unseen, Mara contrived his escape through a narrow window. Yet the rescued guardsman spoke of another captive, a woman named Elin Marr, who remained within.

Mara might have chosen violence. Instead, she chose courage of a different kind.

With Bram's bow covering the entrance and Tomas beside her, she confronted the lodge's armed keepers, Garrick and Kit.

The confrontation nearly became a bloody affair. But Mara recognised that the men were frightened servants rather than eager murderers.

By offering them a chance to put matters right, she secured Elin's freedom without taking a life.

The prisoners were sent to safety, and the two guards agreed to lead Mara to their employer.

Their master was Lord Merek Vale.

III. THE CURSE OF THE IRON CROWN

At Vale Manor, Mara encountered Ysra Pell, the loyal steward of a household gripped by fear.

From her, Mara learned a dreadful truth.

Lord Merek himself was the Moon-Beast.

Six weeks earlier, he had descended into a forgotten chamber beneath the standing stones of Bracken Vale. There, tempted by promises of strength and power to protect his lands, he had placed a circlet of black iron upon his brow.

By night he became a monstrous creature, possessed of terrible strength and only fragments of his human reason.

Yet Merek was neither wholly wicked nor beyond remorse. He feared the destruction he had wrought and longed to be freed.

Mara gave him her word that she would attempt to save him before resorting to killing him.

While the household prepared a fortified crypt in which Merek could be confined at nightfall, Mara searched the ancient family records.

There she discovered the secret of the curse.

The circlet could be removed if its wearer freely renounced its power. Yet its removal alone would not end the enchantment. It must be carried back to the standing stones, heated in flame, and struck apart whilst the wrongs committed beneath its influence were spoken aloud.

Merek willingly surrendered his false gift.

With Ysra's assistance, Mara lifted the iron from his brow.

For the first time in many weeks, Lord Vale heard silence within his mind.

But the ancient power had not yet been destroyed.

IV. THE BREAKING OF THE MOON-BEAST

As evening approached, Merek voluntarily entered the fortified crypt, lest the curse reclaim him.

Mara and Garrick rode to the standing stones bearing the black iron circlet, a hammer and the means to kindle a fierce fire.

There, beneath the gathering shadows, they heated the iron until it glowed red.

Mara named the suffering inflicted upon innocent travellers, the wounds of Bram Hask, the imprisonment of Tomas and Elin, and the fear brought upon the people of Keldenwood.

Garrick confessed his own part in those wrongs.

Then the hammer fell.

Once.

Twice.

And upon the third great blow, the circlet shattered.

A terrible voice cried out from the dying enchantment. For a moment, the shadow of an enormous antlered creature rose between the standing stones.

Then it dissolved into darkness.

The curse of the Moon-Beast was broken.

Returning to Vale Manor, Mara found Lord Merek still human. She released him from the crypt, and the grateful lord welcomed her to his table.

He offered fifty silver pennies in gratitude and later engaged her service to find those still lost in Keldenwood.

The curse was ended, but its consequences remained.

V. THE LOST BENEATH THE EARTH

Word soon came that Jory Fen, the hunter who had vanished whilst following the beast, had been found injured beneath the collapsed roof of an abandoned drying shed.

Mara led a party to his rescue.

From Jory's hidden journal, she discovered the location of an old hollow deep in the forest, beneath which lay forgotten shafts and underground workings.

There Mara assembled a company of capable companions: Garrick, Kit, Harl and Perren.

They descended into the abandoned workings and discovered three desperate prisoners of the darkness.

Martha Bell, her young son Will, and the elderly merchant Aldren Pike had been trapped behind a dangerous timber partition.

Rather than risk bringing the roof down upon them, Mara searched for another entrance. Through an old drainage passage she discovered a forgotten door, which Garrick and Kit opened by removing its rusted hinges.

The three were brought safely into daylight.

Yet another man, Owen Thatch, remained lost.

Following his trail deeper underground, Mara found him beyond a swift subterranean stream. In attempting to bring him across, both were swept from their footing.

Only the stout safety rope and the assistance of her companions saved them.

Though battered and shaken, Mara succeeded in bringing Owen to safety.

Four more souls had been returned from the darkness.

VI. THE STONEMASON AND HIS DAUGHTER

The explorations were not yet finished.

In another passage, Mara discovered a hidden shelter occupied by Corren Venn, a stonemason, and his young daughter Sella.

They had taken refuge beneath the earth to escape the terror of the Moon-Beast.

Corren had heard a man calling from beyond a fallen wall and had been attempting to clear the stones.

Mara investigated, discovering that the blocked passage overlooked the same subterranean stream from which Owen had already been rescued.

Satisfied that no one remained trapped beyond the rocks, she escorted father and daughter safely back to the surface.

Thus six people were brought from the old workings in a single day's expedition, and the number of the missing dwindled.

VII. HUGH LARK AND THE FAITHFUL MULE

Yet one name remained upon the steward's ledger.

Hugh Lark, a drover from Dunmere, had disappeared upon the northern road nine days earlier.

Mara and her companions followed the old livestock trails into the northern hills. Though their first search led them astray, they eventually discovered smoke rising from a ruined shepherd's shelter.

There they found Hugh, alive but injured.

Driven into the hills by the Moon-Beast, he had survived upon spring water and what little food he could gather.

His chief remaining concern, however, was for his lost mule, Thistle.

Following the distant answering brays of that stubborn beast, the company found him grazing contentedly beside an old watering pond.

Man and mule were reunited, much to Hugh's delight and Garrick's amusement, particularly when Thistle attempted to eat the latter's cloak.

And so the final confirmed missing traveller was brought home.

VIII. THE ROAD YET UNTRAVELLED

Now Mara Blackthorn rests once more within the walls of Vale Manor.

Lord Merek lives, freed from the curse that nearly destroyed him. The wounded recover under the care of the physician Oswin. Families separated by fear and darkness have been reunited.

Garrick, once an adversary, has become a loyal and cheerful companion. Kit, Harl and Perren have proven themselves steadfast in danger, and the lord of the manor has placed his resources at Mara's disposal.

Every traveller confirmed missing has been accounted for, though two uncertain reports remain upon Ysra's ledger.

And far beneath Keldenwood, beyond the rushing waters of the underground stream, there remains one opening that no one has yet explored.

Whether it conceals some forgotten secret, another passage to daylight, or merely the silent remains of an older age, none can say.

For the present, the road has grown quieter, the villagers sleep more peacefully, and the forests no longer echo with the hunting cries of the Moon-Beast.

Yet such peace is seldom purchased without sacrifice.

Mara came to Keldenwood seeking honest work and a modest reward. Instead she found a cursed lord, frightened servants, prisoners beneath the earth, and companions whose loyalty was earned not through conquest, but through fairness and courage.

And among all the deeds that might be told of Mara Blackthorn, perhaps the greatest was this:

She entered a land haunted by a monster, and found a way to save the man within it.

Here ends the chronicle of the adventure thus far. The tale of Mara Blackthorn is not yet finished.

The Orchard Beneath the Hill

AI has been used in the creation of this post.

The bell rang beneath the earth.

Pella Briar heard it as she stood before the pear tree that grew where no tree had right to grow.

Its pale roots cracked the floor of an ancient chamber forty steps beneath the orchard. Green fruit hung from its branches, though no sun had touched them in a hundred years.

One pear was black.

Kester Dun shifted his shield.

“I dislike that fruit.”

“You dislike most things underground,” said Torren Clay.

“I have excellent judgement.”

Ysra Nettle was kneeling beside the tree. Her fingers hovered over the earth without touching it.

“This soil was brought here,” she said. “And there’s stone beneath it.”

Then came the sound again.

Ding.

Not from the branches.

From below.

Pella stared at the roots.

For eleven nights she had dreamed of this place.

A tree beneath the world.

A light in darkness.

And a voice whispering:

Pella Briar. Bring a light. They have opened the wrong door.

Now she had found the tree.

She wished she had not.

---

They found blood on an old door.

Bare footprints leading into a passage from which no footprints returned.

Salt scattered across another corridor.

Something scratched behind a sealed door.

And beneath the tree, something knocked.

Three times.

The first expedition had numbered four.

Only Harl had returned to the surface, barefoot and speechless, carrying a green pear.

The others were still below.

Or something wearing their faces was.

They found Mara first.

She came barefoot along the passage with a pear clutched in both hands.

Behind Pella, Harl—whom they had found wounded beyond a secret wall—looked upon her and screamed.

“That is not Mara!”

Mara cursed him.

“He ate one!”

“She buried Joss!”

“Joss was dead!”

Then the bells rang.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Far below, stone doors opened.

The dungeon awakened.

---

Joss came next.

He looked human.

That was the worst of it.

He begged through an iron-bound doorway. He wept. He called Mara’s name.

Then Harl shouted:

“Make him show you his mouth!”

Joss smiled.

His teeth were black.

He charged.

Kester met him with the shield.

Pella’s mace struck Joss across the skull hard enough to kill a living man.

He fell.

Then rose again.

Black pulp ran from his mouth.

Behind him the wall split, and pale hands emerged between roots.

Pella did not chase.

“Hold.”

They held.

When the things came, fire drove them back.

That was the first useful truth the dungeon gave her.

Pella remembered it.

---

They found Fenna crawling in the passage later.

A black pear grew between her teeth.

Around her scuttled pale things no longer than a man’s forearm.

They looked like maggots until they unfolded.

Then one saw the tiny human hands along their bellies.

Torren stared.

“Oh, absolutely not.”

Pella thrust a torch forward.

The creatures recoiled.

So the company advanced.

Shield.

Torch.

Mace.

Steel.

Fire.

Step by deliberate step they drove the horrors backward toward the underground orchard.

The things shrieked and fled from the flames.

Fenna crawled with them.

At the tree, something beneath the roots seized her ankles.

She vanished screaming into the darkness.

Pella looked at the black pear still hanging overhead.

“Burn it.”

Oil struck the roots.

Flame followed.

The underground tree screamed with many voices.

---

They thought they had killed it.

They had merely driven it deeper.

Beyond hidden chambers lay a Green House beneath the hill, filled with pale herbs and ancient glass.

Keeper Ansel waited there.

She had tended that place for forty-three years.

She did not look old enough.

When Pella asked why, Ansel unwrapped her hand.

White roots showed beneath the skin.

There Pella learned the name of the man who had created the horror.

Master Edrin Vale.

Physician.

Scholar.

Fool.

Vale had discovered a strange tree whose sap could delay death.

Vitae stock.

It would not restore the dead.

It merely persuaded death to wait.

Vale had not been satisfied.

He grafted pear onto vitae.

The vitae preserved.

The pear multiplied.

And the dead remembered.

The result had become something neither plant nor corpse.

It grew through flesh.

It fed on memory.

It spoke with stolen voices.

Vale’s final notes contained one warning above all others:

KEEP ONE LIGHT.

And beneath the Green House waited the reason.

---

They descended.

At an old landing sat a dead watcher.

It spoke in Pella’s own voice.

“Not that way.”

It pointed toward a door that did not exist on Vale’s maps.

Pella stared at it.

“What lies beyond?”

“Safety.”

Kester spat.

Pella barred the creature behind an iron grille and continued down the proper stair.

The watcher sang after them in Pella’s voice.

---

They found Elen Varrow upon a stone bed.

She had been young when Vale began his experiments.

Generations had passed since then.

She had not.

A white lamp burned beside her.

Her eyes opened.

“You came.”

Her voice was her own.

That mattered.

Beyond her chamber stood an iron door marked:

CISTERN

Something hammered upon it.

Elen told them the truth.

“The colony feeds from me.”

Beneath her stone bed ran the white root of the original vitae.

Wrapped around it were black-veined tendrils.

The colony had grafted itself onto the woman and fed upon her life for decades beyond counting.

“Cut it away,” Elen said.

“And if we cut the white root?”

“I die.”

The cistern door shook.

THOOM.

Pella knelt.

Ysra guided her.

Torren gave her a narrow blade.

They cut black from white.

Tendril by tendril.

The thing beyond the door battered the iron.

THOOM.

Kester braced his shield against it.

“Soon!”

Black sap welled beneath Pella’s fingers.

The graft tightened.

She dug her fingers beneath it.

Ysra gripped beside her.

Together they tore.

The knot came free with a wet ripping sound.

The pounding stopped.

Elen breathed.

“I’m still here.”

But the dark root withdrew through the floor.

Downward.

Toward its heart.

---

The cistern was vast.

Roots covered the walls.

Bones lay inside them.

Faces protruded from bark.

At the centre squatted a black mass wrapped around an iron tank.

And from that mass grew a pear six feet long.

It breathed.

The voices began.

Joss.

Fenna.

Strangers.

Pella herself.

“Don’t burn us.”

She poured oil.

The thing tried Elen’s voice.

“Pella, wait.”

She poured more.

Then came Vale’s voice.

Soft.

Old.

“Please.”

Pella lifted the torch.

The colony spoke with a hundred mouths.

“WE CAN KEEP YOU.”

Pella dropped the flame.

Fire raced across the roots.

The black pear convulsed.

Men screamed from inside it.

Women.

Children.

The dead.

Perhaps memories only.

Perhaps something worse.

Pella did not run.

Not yet.

She watched until fire entered the root mass itself.

Until the great pear split.

Until flame burst from within.

Torren shouted from the ramp:

“It has taken!”

Kester seized Pella’s arm.

“Now!”

They ran.

Behind them the colony burned.

And through the screaming came one last voice.

Not pleading.

Not threatening.

Vale.

“Thank you.”

Then the cistern fell in upon itself.

---

Elen survived.

When Pella asked what she wanted, the ancient woman gave no speech of destiny or immortality.

“I want to see the sky.”

So they carried her upward.

Through smoke.

Past the watcher.

Across the chamber where the underground orchard burned.

The ceiling cracked.

Roots fell.

Buried things fled from their torches.

Still they climbed.

At last rain touched Pella’s face.

Then Elen’s.

The woman who had lived beneath stone longer than kingdoms endured looked upward at grey clouds.

A bird crossed the evening sky.

Elen wept.

“Cold,” she whispered.

Ysra laughed.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

---

The farmer had promised sixty silver pennies.

Torren considered this after hearing the full account.

“No.”

The farmer blinked.

“No?”

Torren pointed toward the smoking hole in his orchard.

“We have fought dead men, hand-maggots, murderous pears and a root monster made from several generations of corpses.”

He paused.

“One hundred.”

They received one hundred.

That night there was ale.

Hot meat for those who ate it, stew and bread for the rest.

Beds.

A roof.

No bells.

Pella counted her silver.

Kester raised his mug.

“To surviving the first delve.”

Torren lifted his.

“To getting paid.”

Ysra said:

“To knowing when to burn the tree.”

Pella drank.

Then she looked at Kester.

“You lead the next one.”

Kester nearly choked.

Around the table laughter rose.

Beyond the windows the rain fell softly over the hills.

And beneath those hills, in places where no bell had yet rung and no torch had yet shone, old doors waited in the dark.

Online Play. Play by Post D&D 5e. DnDBeyond!

I have been quiet on my solo adventures for whiole. This is due to all the fun I have been having DM'ing and playing on the DnDBeyond Forums !

If you have not ventured there yet, I very highly recommend it. It can be a bit hard to get into a game, but if you're willing to DM one, you will have a torrent of people wanting to play whit you :)

I have tired Play By Post a few times before on other forums but the activity is way too low and most games never really get off the gourd or the peter out and die quickly. This is not true of all games of course, but I have only had one really cool fun enduring game over the last 2 years on other forums.

DnDBeyond (as long as you are happy with playing D&D 5e, home brew or other wise) is super active and I am currently DM'ing two games and playing in two run by other DM's. 

All of this happened only two weeks after signing up to the DnDBeyond site and browsing the Play By Post thread!

Have I typed DnDBeyond enough yet?

One of the games I am running is a procedurally generated wilderness/dungeon based on the movie Labyrinth. 

If you have not seen it yet, do! It's amazing.

I am using the Mythic GM Emulator to create the adventure. It's all random, not planned at all and we are having a blast. It's very old school. Here is my pitch for the Play By Post forum;

Pitch / Setting: The Barons son is kidnapped!

A century ago the Goblin King Cursed the line of Baron Willfrieg VonStross. As is the habit of the fey, the Goblin King offered the Barons great, great sire any favour, if he could adopt and raise the Baron’s heir as his own son in the Goblin City.

Willfreig’s ancestor was no fool and saw the offer for a trap. This infuriated the Goblin King, so he cursed the VonStross line. From that day forth if any member of the family accepted any offer of the Goblin Kings favour it would be granted, and the price would be the current heir.

One night heavy with drink Willfreig lost his wits and in anger at his younger son, jested that he would rather The Goblin king be his farther. The next morning the heir was gone!

You have answered the Barons call and volunteered to brave the Labyrinth that surrounds the Goblin city, fight your way to the Goblin Kings Castle, and rescue the Barons heir.

[Yep, this adventure uses the Movie Labyrinth for inspiration. One of my favourite movies, it reeks of that wonderful Old School chaos and fun.]

Premise: This will be an experiment, a successful one I hope, combining the D&D 5E rules with the Mythic GM Emulator. The idea is to share an adventure with 3 to 5 other players in a Play by Post environment, in a sandbox dungeon, that is randomly generated with group story telling.

Play Style: Play by Post.

System: D&D 5E, combined with Mythic GM Engine.

Player Count: Min 4, Max 6.

Style of play: Old School Renaissance. Even mix of RP, Hack and Slash, in a big randomly generated sandbox-mega-dungeon.

Allowed Content: Core books only. 5E PHB, 5E DMG, 5E MM. Home brew may included in setting and Monster creation.

Character Creation: For that old school feel there are some restrictions on the types of characters available for play. Only Clerics, Fighters, Rogues, and Wizards are allowed. Standard as per the 5E PHB. No multi-classing. Feats option is allowed. Only Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human races are allowed. All characters start at 1^st level.

Backstory: Only a paragraph of two are required, but if you want to give us a good read go ahead! Backstories may be mined for adventure content.

Experience: All characters start at 1^st level. Xp gain with instant level up when threshold is reached.

Wealth: As per 5E PHB standard character creation.

Ability Scores: Standard array placed as desired by player. [15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8]

Hitpoints/Health: Max 1^st level, average or rolled there after, players choice. [with record of roll ofc ;)]

Alignment: Characters must be of lawful good, neutral good, and chaotic good alignments. You are volunteer heroes after all!

Other Notes:

Mythic Gm Engine Notes: My idea is to have this adventure as randomly generated as possible. The core mechanics of game play will be 5E D&D, but for the most part the dungeon master will be simulated with the Mythic rules. I will be a player / party member, and will administer the Mythic Engine side of the game.

Each player may ask a question of the ‘DM’ on their turn, myself included. I will then consult the Mythic GM for an answer. I will then present the results to the party and we can interpret them together. In cases of a ‘tie of opinion’ we will randomly choose an interpretation and move on.

In combat I will default to the DM role for the monsters and NPC’s as well as play my own character.

If this adventure idea gets traction then I will post up some more information on how The Mythic GM works, and how to ask questions for more effective and fun adventures.

Posting Frequency: I anticipate I will be able to manage 4 to 5 posts a week, so a similar availability would be nice for other players. If you are busy and need to skip a post or two that’s fine ofc, RL first and all that :) If you are going to be away for an extended time, please let the rest of us know.

OOC: Please preface all out of character comments with ‘OOC:’

Encumbrance: Semi important. As long as we don’t get ridiculous with weight carried.

Death: In the tradition of Old School, and rogue like dungeons death will matter. There will be no Mulligans or take backs. If you die you die. However if you die due to a mistake in rules application or interpretation then we can roll the adventure back a bit, if only a few posts have occurred before the mistake is picked up.

New Player Friendly: YES! Don’t let being new to the hobby put you off :) One caveat though, you have to make an effort to learn the rules and understand how you want to play your character. Please show an interest in your character, be proactive, and engage with the story and your fellow party members.

Character Names: Please keep them reasonably serious and relevant to the setting and tone of the adventure.

Player Behaviour: My hope for this adventure is that it will be a friendly, fun and inclusive environment. Please keep real world politics and prejudices out of the game, this includes OOC: posting. Very much a don’t be a D*^k rule is in place. I just want to have an interesting and fun adventure with some new friends :)

It went much, much better than I expected based on previous Play By Post forums I had used before.

Within 24 hours I had all of my players and a waiting list of other players should anyone drop out!

I have today Just posted a run down of how I use the Mythic GM Emulator to generate the adventure, its setting, and encounters for my players. I thought I would also share it here should any one be interested in my process.

This is based on the 4th and 5th encounters, and the fourth setting in the dungeon thus far;

Post #11 The Black Oak- Creating an encounter in a procedurally generated adventure/dungeon with Mythic GM Emulator, my brain, and the internets.

After the battle in the courtyard, and the trip through the walled gardens and streams with the aid of Bort your new friend, I felt that a change of terrain/scenery was probably very likely given the chaotic Fey nature of the Labyrinth. So I took out the Mythic GM Emulator and started rolling!

Chaos Factor: 6

Random event? [8] No

Q1: Do the companions enter a new biome?

Odds Very Likely: [59] Yes

I had some ideas for biome type, based on my recollection of the movie Labyrinth, and some stuff I had kicking around in my head, that I thought would be cool/fun for all of us.

Q2: Is the next biome ruins?

Odds 50/50: [72] No.

Q3: Is it a Wood?

Odds 50/50: [09] Exceptional Yes.

So this was some kind of special Wood. I decided to go with a Haunted and magical wood, that was a danger because of the many deceptions and illusions layered upon it by the Goblin King Himself.

It occurred to me that the Goblin King being a cruel and capricious Fey of the Winter Court would very much enjoy seeing how the Wood he had glamoured broke down the minds and bodies of any who dared challenge his rule and entered it.

Thus..

Q4: Would the Goblin King come see the companions struggling along in his creation?

Odds Likely: [33] Yes and Random Event! (Because I rolled a double [33] that was also below the threshold of the Chaos factor of 6.)

The Random Event Focus needed to be determined: [59]

Consulting the table it was a PC negative Event.

For the Event Meaning Action: [08] Oppose

For the Event Meaning Subject: [13] War

My interpretation was that the Goblin King would Confront the group in some fashion. Thinking that He may be a bit tough to give a meaningful encounter at this stage of the adventure I posed another question to the Mythic GM…

Q5: Does the Goblin King confront the players through proxy?

Odds Very Likely: [47] Yes.

So he would use the forest and its creatures to attack/challenge the companions for his own twisted amusement.

So I went to Google and looked for some ideas and random encounter generators for a Haunted/Fey Wood. I found and excellent free d100 one that for the life of me I cannot find again. Of course!

I ended up rolling a few times for atmosphere and a few for the actual encounter.

The atmospheric results were things like strange clumps of flowers carpeting the ground. Thick canopy blocking all of the light. A sense of unease and being watched all the time.

The results that made up the encounter were;

Strange glowing Moths, a haunted grove, and strange lights in the distance.

I thought of these large glowing moths that lived in the Wood. How did they eat, breed, what was their life like?

It made sense to me that they glowed to attract prey. I gave them strange hypnotic patterns to hold their prey once attracted. This was so the larvae that lived in the leaves at the base of the huge dark oak they called home, could have the chance to attack and feed upon any unfortunate creatures that happened along.

I set the DC for the enchantment at 15 [in retrospect it was too high in my opinion. All but one of the group failed in the first round, so I started panicking and quickly revised the damage done by the grubs. I retconned it from 1d4+1 per attack to 1d4 for the first attack, followed by 1 damage per round there after (much like a stirge feeding). I did this fearing a TPK. Next time I would set the DC at around 12, I think.

The group eventually broke the enchantment with co-operation, better rolls, and a good dose of fire!

The order of play/combat/initiative was very free from in the first part of the encounter, I think I may have been trying to do too much with the game, considering the nature of online play by post and the lack of maps and play aids I am using.

As we entered the next phase of the Dark Oak encounter I formalised initiative a bit more, so that everyone knew when to act. In retrospect this also was not the best solution, as I think the flow of play slowed and almost halted due to real life, confusion due to changing initiative resolutions, and it just being a sub optimal way of doing it.

We are now going forward with the initiative variant where either the NPC or Party act, with the order of the action within the ‘side’ being unimportant. As long as players let other players respond after they have so that everyone gets a fair time on the stage, we should be golden :)

I had the Goblin King be a mocking, eerie presence out in the darkness of the wood, hoping to give the group a chance for a bit of RP with the combat and skill challenge. The Goblin King taunted and was in turn taunted back.

Q6: Is the Goblin King angered and thus will he retaliate?

Odds Likely: [63] Yes. The Winter Fey are fickle, moody, and easily angered to rash action.

The Goblin King decided that a backhanded reward would be ironic punishment for the insolence directed at him. So he promised to light the way forward for the companions by summoning some of the other luminous residents of the wood.

I love Will-O-Wisps but they are too powerful in numbers that would bring drama and meaning to a combat for the group of six characters. They were seven, but one has disappeared form he game and the story due to inaction on the players part.

Not much has been said about this in or out of character, the nature of online play I suspect :)

Still wanting to have a Will-O-Wisp style monster I modified the Monster Manual Template (something I do with just about all of the NPC’s and Monsters I use in my games. Keeps us all on our toes :P)

Thus Corpse Candles were borne!

They are much like Will-O-Wisps but do less damage, cannot go invisible, are a bit slower, and have an area effect attack when they die. Just something a little different :)

I was a bit concerned that they would still be too much of a threat for the group, but through the usual good tactics, RP, and RNG we all made it through. Though I think the AC of the creatures was too high and may have been a bit frustrating for some of the companions. I will adjust it down for future use.

They group then fled the fire and went on to a safe area for a good long rest and some much needed XP and loot!

The adventure continues...

Proof! - Watched from the woods...

I thought for this instalment of the adventure I would include more of my workings. More of whats going on in my mind with regard to the questions I ask and how I interpret them. Also more of the dice rolling, and how their results influence the outcomes.

At Wood Manor: The next morning.

The trio wakes and begins searching the exterior of the Manor and the grounds for any further clues.

I review the characters abilities;

Margaret Hill
Retired professor / Middle school history teacher Defining Trait / Narrow Trait [+3], Local history buff: Massachusetts Narrow Trait [+3], Good eye for detail Broad Trait [+1], Keen intuition Broad Trait [+1].

Leonard Wixom
Idle Rich Dilettante Broad Trait [+1], Thrill Seeker Defining Trait / Broad Trait [+1], Family Owns Half of Massachusetts Broad Trait [+1], Worldly Broad Trait [+1]

Deborah Wood
College Student: History Broad Trait [+1], Unknown but Talented Artist Narrow Trait [+3], Socialite Broad Trait [+1], YachtswomenNarrow Trait [+3]

I decide which Skills / Traits are appropriate for the search.

Margaret has a Good Eye for Detail, and Keen Intuition, the usefulness of these are pretty self evident in searching and investigating.

Leonard has Worldly, he has seen and done and seen a thing or two in his time, probably some quite shady stuff. So he may have useful input and insight into situations involving kidnapping.

Deborah is more difficult. I decide to let her use Socialite, much in the same way as Leonard's use for Worldly, but with a slight penalty as I feel it is a more limited form of worldliness.

So working with the Swords of Strange Aeons [SOSA] component I roll for their search.

Margaret:  Good eye for detail - Skill Die 3+1 / Difficulty Die 6, Keen Intuition - Skill Die 4+1 / Difficulty Die 2.

Leonard: Worldly -  Skill Die 5+1 / Difficulty Die 6.

Deborah: Socialite Skill Die 2+1-2 / Difficulty Die 1.

Margaret's intuition kicks in during the search with a result of 5 Vs 2. The difficulty die is beaten by three points. Not bad.

Both Leonard and Deborah have limited success by matching their skill roll to the difficulty die result.

Interpretation: The three friends have a light breakfast of coffee and toast, and discuss the details and possibilities that have emerged after finding that the manor had been cleaned in great detail. They find it hard to believe that a man who spends most of his time in his head like Charles would decide to give the house a good going over before disappearing.

They emerge from the manor, the sun rising slow and hot above the calm sea, its rays slanting across the yard. Dew still clings to the grass and the air is eerily still. The sun continues to climb into the sky as they search, from time to time someone passes by on foot walking towards town. They are all dressed in drab tough work clothes worn to a mottled grey.

They pass by, heads down, without any interest in the trio and what they are doing. Occasionally one does look up with a quick suspicious, or was it nervous, glance.

After a couple of hours searching they are ready to give up, no further evidence has turned up and they are sure that something bad happened to Charles, and had then been covered up.

Margaret takes one last look at the front of the manor, it's veranda, and the decorative slats concealing the supports underneath. It is then she imagines that a hurried or sloppy clean up may have missed anything that had slid through the widely space boards.

Leonard, reluctantly, volunteers to crawl under  and in short time finds the congealed blood under the boards directly in front of the door.

Someone, probably Charles, had been hurt, badly. Their suspicions confirmed, the heartsick group begin to see the realities of the hard task before them.

Charles is in trouble.

Someone has covered it up.

The police are uncooperative.

The people in town, including their officials are hostile.

All of this, combined with the dark history of Rockport shakes their collective resolve.

They stand in the long grass, the dew of the morning now gone. Deborah openly weeps, Leonard consoles her with wet eyes, whilst Margaret eyes their surroundings. As Margaret's gaze drifts to the Town that hugs the shore of the bay below, her eyes rest upon the large complex of the cannery.

She turns to Deb and Leo and says, "I think we need to take a look at that cannery."

NPC's:

With the Mythic GM component of the rules I am using I ask a few questions that will frame the activities of the NPC's.

First up I believe that the detective that followed them form the station the day before would want to keep tabs on them.

I ask, "Is detective Henry Jones watching the group as they search the outside of the Manor?" 

Deciding that is it LIKELY that he is I look at the Fate Chart and see for the current Chaos Rank of 8 the indicators are 19-95-100.

So 19 and below I would get an EXCEPTIONAL YES. For 20 to 95 a YES, and for 96 to 100 an EXCEPTIONAL NO.

I roll 76. YES Henry Jones is watching them.

Now I ask "Do the group notice him watching them?"

Deciding that,although they did notice someone following them yesterday evening and they are rightly suspicious of the towns people, they are so engrossed in their search that they are unlikely to notice the detective watching them form his concealed position.

Looking at the chart I see, 18-75-96. They still have an alarmingly high chance of spotting him. As the situation in Rockport becomes more chaotic loss of control becomes an ever more likely occurrence for the characters and the NPC's!

I roll 100! An EXCEPTIONAL NO. They are oblivious to his presence. Because this was an exceptional no, he also over hears Margaret mention checking out the cannery.

Now I need to know how deep Henry's involvement with the going s on in Rockport are.

I ask, "Is Henry Jones involved with the Rockport conspiracy?"

This seems LIKELY, he is a high ranking police officer and the power players in town seem to have some involvement and influence.

The chart lists 19-95-100. I roll 01!

He is in the thick of it. The idea that he is the son of the mayor and it is his founding, and very influential, family that run things in Rockport jumps into my mind.

So now the lead conspirators know their suspicions regarding Charles. They know that the cover up was unsuccessful, and they know what the groups next step will be.

Henry Jones definitely does not want them to find out what is going on at the cannery.

---

I hope you find this interesting.

I hope that other solo players using Mythic GM Emulator find this helpful and useful.

See you next time when John Morgan meets "The Foreman".