On Beginning the Delve Into Stonehell

Map by Erika, who plays our Robber, Nicole

Players in my B/X Stonehell dungeon crawl have explored about half of the first quadrant of its first level in the five sessions we've had. They've met the patrols of kobolds and orcs, slayed the dragon, and—after feeding it a severed arm—talked to the stone head. No one has died.

As for running an open-table, no-commitment game, we've had no "issues," social or otherwise, so far. Everyone has been friendly, relaxed, patient, conversational, enthusiastic, and proactive! When we've played, we've always had a great group show up despite sessions being mainly impromptu.

Both of our last two sessions have had five players. The table is so full of lively personality that I've lowered the limit of seats from six to five. Stonehell better caters to a smaller group, in my opinion as both as player and now DM. Usually, I find five to be the perfect number for online gaming; for this, it's four with three—normally a sparse amount—being good as well.

Of the nine total players, four have attended only one of the five sessions while five have played in three or four games. At least two or three are very enthusiastic to play. Caller is a popular position, a great "problem" to have!

Treasure, and thus XP rewards, have been very "feast or famine," as I expected having been a player at not one, but two other Stonehell tables. While they had a Cleric in the group, the Thief picked the lock to the stone-door crypt, but only raided one of its tombs and haven't returned since. Their robbery was rewarded with a necklace worth 400 gp. That was a random roll, and a damn good one on a table with a 50% chance of no treasure. It was the same delve in which they found a bag of 3,000 silver coins under a random flagstone in a broom closet.

All three characters that session leveled with the Thief hitting B/X's one-level-per-session limit with plenty of excess. So, we have an adept (C2), Oscar; a robber (T3), Nicole; and a warrior (F2), William. All others who weren't at that one particular session are first level.

Right now, the players are still in an early phase where they aren't making great strides of progress with each delve. Stonehell is a mysterious and deadly place; they're in no hurry to meet their unwitting doom. At the same time, I, as the DM, am by no means pulling at their leash or cracking my whip to hurry them along. A slow-and-steady pace for our first half-dozen or so sessions is fine. We're having fun and that's the most important thing!

However, a faster pace would better equalize treasure rewards. Stonhell has an organic rhythm or cadence. Its drum beats only as fast as the players move in real-time.

The two times I played Stonhell, both my characters ended up at the fourth level with starter equipment before the game ended. To avoid that, I knew I was going to increase and redistribute Stonhell's treasure. I multiplied the coin value of everything by 10 using a "silver standard" of currency exchange rate (1 sp = 1 xp, prices are in silver). So, that 400 gp necklace they found was worth 4,000 xp.

Also, I sprinkled generic, base magic weapons throughout the level—a +1 dagger has been found.

At the same time, I've strengthened the monsters considerably. In place of a giant gecko, there was a much more fearsome winged draco hiding on the ceiling. Importantly, unlike the gecko with 3+1 HD, A draco has 4+2 HD—making it immune to the Sleep spell. It glided down and was promptly dispatched.

You don't even have to ask: yes, of course the PC took the "dragon slayer" moniker. This is D&D! Well deserved, too. Ingrid tanked two 1d10-damage attacks!

In last night's session, the delvers were attacked by a giant black widow, a dreaded "save-vs-death" monster. It dropped from the shadows of the "spider web chamber's" high vaulted ceiling, but our Magic-User, Kesshut, nuked it with Sleep.

Earlier in the session, Kesshut had the idea to use his mirror to reflect the party's lantern light upward to a high ceiling in the "bat room." That was a good idea, and it was rewarded by finding a gold ring on a high rock ledge. The party thinks it's magic. And cursed. Or not.

As Nicole used spikes and rope to scale the wall, a band of orcs approached to the edge of torchlight. The Dragon Slayer scared them off with pure intimidation.

Who knows what they'll find if we have a session tonight!