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Hey what ever happened with "The Linear Men" and "Revel in the Dark" scenarios?

For context: I saw that Dennis released "Delta Green: Owlshead Mountain", and it got me to hunting around for a lighter ruleset to run it as a one-shot, and well here we are :)

Has anyone tried creating a map for Kal-Arath?

Q) On "Spell of Somnolence", and in particular "friendly fire".

TLBB says "within a 24" range" - I assume that means sleep can affect targets from the caster's location, within line-of-sight? Many other editions will mention a 240' range combined with a XX' radius/square area of effect (it varies by edition/retro-clone).

TLBB says "Effects are random if there are more potential targets than the number rolled." If there are both PCs and monsters (i.e. "beings"), can the sleep spell work against the party, if the random selection goes awry?

I was playing yesterday and I house-ruled that "potential targets" excludes friendlies.

I think in other editions, including the "target area" within the range helps with the tactical considerations of casting sleep.

However, in "Delving Deeper", it says:

Sleep (affects: 1 or 4-14 creatures, duration: 3-18 turns, range: 24") Causes 4-14 normal-types or 1 heroic-type with up to 4+1 hit dice to fall into a fitful slumber.  The magic is indiscriminate and must affect the indicated number of creatures beginning with those nearest the target.  The magic affects only creatures that normally sleep but no saving throw is allowed.

So that has some concept of a "target" - I guess that's like "target zero", implying Sleep is cast upon an initial target and spreads out from there.

From DD and TLBB I can infer that FF is possible on a sleep.

And DD explicitly mentions "no saving throw".

Thoughts? Cheers!

Q) Page 12 uses the term "saving roll", whereas everywhere else uses "saving throw". With PDF I often use search feature, and I missed that comment on p.12.

A successful saving roll negates a hazard (death, paralysis, polymorph, etc.) or halves damage.

I find that some spell descriptions will mention saving throw mechanics, but others do not. This creates confusion for me at the table!

Do you apply the rule on p.12 universally? How about against any spell, perhaps "Spell of Somnolence"?

I would suggest that if sleep is the exception rather than rule with regards to saving throws against magic, TLBB could invert the text to make the universal comment on p.12 more clear (i.e with regards to resisting spells, wands, staves), and then remove all the comments from individual spells on "save for 1/2 damage etc". Then, add to Sleep spell the explicit comment on "no save".

Thoughts?

Thanks - that detailed map looks great!

That's great news BTW, I look forward to it.

Q) Any plans to expand the size of map? I'm using it to run a few adventures in, and it's starting to feel pretty cozy :)

I have the "Wyrd and Wild" bundle of holding, which includes "AveNox.pdf", but no maps booklet.

Can I get that separately, please? Thanks

I searched for "Return to Perinthos" on DTRPG but didn't find it?

Note the necklace on p.47 has its value listed in GP rather than SP.

> 1/4/2025 - The Great Revision

The great revision of 2025 :)

Nice! Thanks for making this. I grabbed the normal PDF version off gitlab. Cheers

Note on 2x different PDF readers I have the same problem - the "fi" and "fl" letters of words are not visible.

A good example is on p.47 under Bloatfang's entry. The words "fights" and "flees" are good examples.

Tested on:

• Windows 10, Sumatra PDF 3.5.2, 64-bit
• Android, ReadEra premium app

Q) On a certain NPC's staff... is it glass, or bone? For example:

• p.31 "he wields a staff of rotting bone"
• p.33 "named for his glass staff."
• p.38 "A glass staff leans against"
• p.38: "wields a rotted staff."

It went really well, it took 2 sessions and they didn't explore the full dungeon. 

They worked out the teleportation stones rescued the prisoners and gtfo back to the colony

Great session, thanks for sharing the module 

Wonderful, thanks for sharing! Questions/feedback:

1. Bookmarks on the PDF would be great
2. A region map for the "seven realms of Lothorian"?
3. A city map of "Cathedra"?

All three I can do myself of course, but it would be awesome to add to the PDF, I think!

Another option for a regional map - mix these adventures into SD's Cursed Scroll 2 - Red Sands expansion. In that case, Lothorian can be "The Djurum", Cathedra can be "Alkesh", the Serpent's Den could be "The Jewel of Borak" in The Forgotten Quarter, and the"Oasis of Al-Gaib (or is that Al-Ḡarab?) could be the "Shar Oasis".

For VTT maps, I generally use a GM's map as-is, the numbers help with players telling me where they want to go - the only tweak I'd like is to put the "S" for secret doors/walls/passages "behind" the secret, so when I use "fog of war" during online/VTT play, I can reveal the room without making it immediately obvious. I feel that's less work than a separate "player facing" map.

Thanks will check it out. TLM at first flick-through looks very interesting. Your description of Infravision & Nightvision is great.

With TLM I really like the layout and choice of art. Bookmarks might need a bit of fixup?

For the Backgrounds, would recommend adjusting the layout so each one fits on a single page, rather than bleeding over.

There's a lot of depth in TLM, will have to take my time reading through it all.

For now, I'm planning to play your adventure with "The Littlest Brown Book" (here on itch as well), to give a 5e group a taste of '74 D&D, in both rules and vibes (and for me as DM as well).

If I ever got the chance to run an OSR sandbox, I'd look at TLM for sure. I wonder how it'd go with Gunderholfen?

Design question - on not using speed rating for overworld travel?

It feels like there's a deliberate simplicity at play here, would be interested to understand your design approach. 

I was assuming the rules were going to be something like "triple your adjusted speed rating in miles per day".

Cheers!

This is a very cool scenario. I'm planning to run it with an OD&D retroclone in a few weeks' time, as a two-session adventure.

I like the text on the left/right sidebars on each page, and I like the blue design aesthetic.

Thanks for sharing, hopefully I can write up an actual play report later.

Wow this looks really cool. Thanks for sharing!

Owlbear VTT version PC. Looking great!

Minor feedback:

• No spot for Alignment?
• Could call the "Spells" section "Spells/Notes" (for non-casters)?

As someone who never played OD&D before, a table-ready version would be nice. Expanding the house-rules in the Appendix seems useful, for dealing with the questions that are inevitable for almost every group.

What I do at the moment is cross-reference a few other choice retroclones, and pick a rule clarification (or equipment item) I like, and add it in to my own houserules doc. Delving Deeper, S&W:CR, Wight Box, WB:FMAG, Iron Falcon, etc.

Just for fun, here's a version of your sheet using the Owlbear VTT:

(Ignore the incorrect values, copy+paste from an online LBB character generator)

Mainly just posting to give you an idea of all the information I would capture on an index card.

The Infested Morass sounds really cool btw, I wonder how well it would go with "They Cried Monster" (also on itch)?

Hi there,

Any plans for "the littlest character sheet(s)"? 

:)

Here's my recent write up:

https://starmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/04/11/parallel-dungeons-into-the-odd-actual-play-report/

Excellent module. I recommend not pushing for the players to activate the dimension changing device, let them come to it on their own time.

I believe so:

https://maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/

Get My Zines Here!

In Print + PDF <-- links to the shop page

In PDF Only

P.61, Entrance, "leads to a lonely hidden deep in Sarkash"

Lonely X?

Grubghoul, p.59, is the "Savage Strike" supposed to benefit the PCs?

p.32, Graveworm stats are "TBD"

Any plans to bookmark the PDF? Cheers, looking great!

Some notes during first read through:

1. Darkvision... would have preferred to remove this from all player ancestries. See White Box FMAG for example, or Shadowdark.
2. 1d4 weapon damage for the Thief seems off, I'd have gone for 1d6.
3. I really like the combination of class based damage modified by weapon. Very nice!
4. Gutsy Strike vs Dual Wielder.... seems unbalanced?

Am enjoying reading this, thanks for making it.

Hello, I bought the quick start on DTRPG, but it hasn't been upgraded over there yet? Cheers

Hey I just got MBS on the Itch sale - do you recommend using the Alpha version with FIST Ultra?

Also it looks like MBS is not bookmarked, any plans to do that?

Cheers!

Here's the actual play report (warning, spoilers):

https://starmonkey.wordpress.com/2024/06/23/actual-play-report-sleeping-place-of...

One of the best adventure modules I've ever run. I have a write-up I'll publish and link here soon.

Hi Chris -  I really like this adventure, thanks for writing it. I also read your play reports for this module, up on loottheroom.uk, good stuff.

Q) Any plans for an epub version of this module?

For context - I'm using an e-ink reader (Supernote) these days a lot to read RPG materials, and page 29 is not legible, at least on my greyscale display!

Lastly, I would be interested in any house-rules you have for MB.

Cheers

How did you go, using this with your group?

I just finished reading ADF through in detail, I think this is one of the best TTRPG books I've read in a while, for those reasons you've stated above.

Agreed, it's a really good fit!