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Original D&D Discussion :: Dungeons & Dragons (1971-1978) :: Holmes Basic D&D (1978) :: Basement of Zenopus This Past Week

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Topic: Basement of Zenopus This Past Week (Read 374 times)

xerxez
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Basement of Zenopus This Past Week
« Thread Started on Dec 23, 2011, 1:01pm »

I ran the dungeon from the Holmes blue book pretty much as it was written and am having a fine time!

The players, mostly teenagers, had great fun.

A few additions that I made which the heroes discovered in the course of their adventure:

The thuamaturgist in room F is Zandos, a wizard of the Black Brotherhood who was sent to Port town to insinuate himself into the citiy politics and appear a friend of the city. Actually he is not only masquerading in town as a benevolent mage and friend of the city leaders but is also searching the depths of the dungeon for any secrets of the old Zenopus.

The goblins in room A are an advance guard sent to the edges of Porttown because the Black Brotherhood is actually gathering the goblins and orcs of the hills to prepare for war on the human cities below.

The townsfolk are unaware that the wizards tower is connected to the old ruins by secret doors.

In the wizard's study, they found a letter from the town council honoring Zandos. They also found a bill of receipt for the Whit Ape, from one pirate captain whose men, of course, occupy the sea cave.

It seems the white ape is from the mythical isle of Mu, adding a new adventure hook.

Interestingly, the players managed to kill the white ape and skinned it--its hide should fetch a pretty penny in the markets of Port town, but they suspect that the wizard kept the ape as part of a magical experiment he was doing.....they killed Zandos as well.

What I have learned--do not let a party attempt this dungeon without an elf and a cleric! They did have elves, if they had not, it would have been a TPK in the room with the ghouls! If a cleric had been there to turn at least a couple of the ghouls, the party would have fared much better--they almost died.

One player did lose a character last night--my son's thief perished in the room of the giant spider. It seems that Snaga, captain of the goblin band (I had to inflate their numbers due to our larger party size) led them to the room after his defeat in Room A--poor Aerimus the thief had only two points left and decided to walk across the room (I added a chest of treasure on the back wall...). If he had fired a flaming arrow up into the recessed of the ceiling, he might have seen the giant spider.

Sadly, it fell upon him, took his remaining two hitpoints, and poisoned him and he failed the save (I was going to allow him to simply be unconscious at 0 HP, not dead.). His friends feathered it with arrows but alas it was too late.

Which leads me to a question--XP is split even among dead party members, correct?

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foxroe
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Re: Basement of Zenopus This Past Week
« Reply #1 on Dec 23, 2011, 8:22pm »

Good question. I would say yes, since the dead party member was earning that experience as well (up to a point), but I'm sure there are plenty of dissenting opinions out there.

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"Those who swallow the camel of the entire concept, then strain at gnats of a particular monster or situation seem to be be losing much of the basis for playing. However, that sort of thing happens as one becomes familiar with the fanciful and begins to qualify the experience by comparison to reality." - EGG

Cameron DuBeers
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Re: Basement of Zenopus This Past Week
« Reply #2 on Dec 23, 2011, 8:32pm »

I'd look at when the dead PCs passed through the Great Divide. If early in the adventure? I might allow the party to ignore his contribution and divide the XP among themselves. If late, the reverse would be true and an equal share of XP would be "burned".

I don't know that I would get too granular with it, the finest resolution I would go with is 25% increments. HTH.

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GOBLINS, Sir Rico! Thousands of 'em!

Zenopus
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Re: Basement of Zenopus This Past Week
« Reply #3 on Dec 23, 2011, 9:43pm »

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a lot of fun!

Tying the ape to the pirates is brilliant. The ape in Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue was owned by a sailor.

You should split the XP with the dead PC up to the point he died. He might get raised!

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"Story tellers are always careful to point out that the reputed dungeons lie in close proximity to the foundations of an older, pre-human city, to the graveyard, and to the sea.”
- Holmes rulebook

Zenopus Archives - Holmes Basic D&D - website & blog

xerxez
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Re: Basement of Zenopus This Past Week
« Reply #4 on Dec 23, 2011, 10:35pm »

Thanks guys.

I deducted some party XP for the late Aerimus but let them keep the larger part.

It was great fun and I love this dungeon!

Merry Christmas.

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Falconer
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Re: Basement of Zenopus This Past Week
« Reply #5 on Dec 23, 2011, 11:02pm »

Dec 23, 2011, 1:01pm, xerxez wrote:

the room of the giant spider. It seems that Snaga, captain of the goblin band … led them to the room after his defeat in Room A

Hahah, the exact same thing happened when I ran it one time!

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Brouhaha
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Re: Basement of Zenopus This Past Week
« Reply #6 on Feb 8, 2012, 12:26am »

Dec 23, 2011, 1:01pm, xerxez wrote:

Which leads me to a question--XP is split even among dead party members, correct?

Correct Answer: NO

Holmes, page 11:

Quote:

The Dungeon Master usually takes all the experience earned by the party, treasure and monsters defeated, and divides it equally among all surviving members of the expedition.

Why "usually"?

Quote:

The Dungeon Master should have the option of lowering the number of experience points gained under special circumstances. If one character sneaks out of the dungeon with all the treasure while the rest of the party is being eaten, he should gain some experience points but not necessarily all of them!

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