Over the summer I played Stone Hell, using Old School Essentials.
Backstory
I went to UK Games Expo for first time since Covid and picked up both Stonehell Dungeon books for £10 in the bring and buy section. I didn't know much about it but had heard it was a good megadungeon.
I'd played some Old School Essentials (OSE) solo earlier this year with the Incandescent Grottoes by Gavin Norman (who also wrote OSE). I figured it could work for this megadungeon too, as most OSR things can be mushed together.
I also wanted a longer-term solo project, and maybe this one might stick. I could even try a couple rival adventuring parties if it went well..
All the OSE
Old Schools Essentials is a restatement (it's tidied up and given a decent layout) of the old Basic and Expert D&D box. I'd tried Basic D&D for my first solo rpg experience during covid. It was fine but I'd soon moved onto Knave.
But this time around I'd listened to years of others using the ruleset, with 3d6 Down the Line (Dolmenwood, Arden Vul), Tale of the Manticore (did an interview) and Legend of the Bones (also interviewed).
So now have a better idea of how old school D&D can be played and run. The simplicity of combat, the deadliness, what to track, what not, how easy it is to hack. It brought back the nostalgia of running and playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2e as a teenager. But with as simpler rules set that makes a difference for solo play.
Also OSE has a load of support with supplements and adventures. I'm now the owner of 5 issues of Carcass Crawler...
Soloing a Megadungeon
My solo tools were my own simple solo emulator (think Mythic d20 Reduced to three d20 tables and lists of Extras and Threads) and any random tables to hand.
I soon found out that Stone Hell is easy to run, as each dungeon section is laid out on a double-page spread. Map and a few notes on one page, room descriptions on the other.
The first adventuring party lost some members, fell afoul of orcs and made some hirelings. They setup a base at the Demon Cow Malthouse, a roadside inn half a days travel from Stonehell Dungeon.
Then a second adventuring party was added, with a calendar of their expeditions. Over time more adventuring parties emerged, as groups splintered or recovered from catastrophes. I've always loved the idea of competing adventuring parties but its a lot harder to do with face-to-face groups.
The first fireball a party had to face was a shock of them (and lost half the party).
To avoid having to play every expedition, I created a d20 table to resolve expeditions with a single roll (or a couple rolls, adding in Advantage / Disadvantage), with results varying from a party wipeout to achieving objective without difficulty. I'll publish the table when it's been polished a little.
Stonehell Factions
From listening to two podcasts about Arden Vul (3d6DTL, Shadowdark), I've come to understand the importance of factions in Megadungeons. I've run megadungeons in the past (Undermountain - AD&D 2e, Rappan Athuk - 3E, homebrew one - AD&D 2e, 3E, 5E). These had varying degrees of success at the table, with the best experience having factions involved.
The relationships between factions gives life to the dungeon, and gives opportunities for alliances, enmities, betrayals. Places to create safe havens, pick up unusual hirelings or pets and trade items and favours.
So as my parties started meeting different factions in Stonehell, such as the Kobolds or the Lizardfolk, I've kept a few notes. Relationships and leaders, a main and secondary goal. A few lines for most is sufficient.
A couple factions have left the game (Wolf Gang, the orcs) as the game progressed and the focus shifted to further down into the dungeon. A few factions are foes and allies of some of the parties.
So far Stonehell has been a great pleasure to play solo, as is OSE. It's different to playing a system a month or two like most of the Rolling Solo Actual Plays.
Season 2 - The Hobgoblin War.
Season 1 ended with a group clearing out a temple on Level 4, and Hobgoblin reinforcements arriving in large numbers. There were six adventuring parties plus their hirelings and a few mercenaries which hired on as needed.
And after taking a pause for Autumn, I'm ready for Season 2: The Hobgoblin War.
During the pause I mapped out the area around Stonehell, created dungeon & local area tables and wrote up a lot for the Demon Cow Malthouse (stealing the roadside Inn map from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1E).
For Season 2 I wanted to create and test lots more dungeon random tables (combining solo with random tables work), and eventually focus on running a couple of adventuring parties. And develop and test more random tables for Factions, inns and fungi.
As I'm about to start running Dolmenwood for my own weekly group, might be stealing some rules from that too.
Finishing Up
Now it's time to get on with Chapter 2: The Hobgoblin War.
Happy gaming!
Duncan
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