Category Archives: Dungeons And Dragons

The Shrine of Chaos and the D101 Hack

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I ran my adventure, The Shrine of Chaos, using the D101 Hack, at Virtual Grogmeetish a couple of weekends ago.

The D101 Hack, in a nutshell, is a rules-light D20 class/level game that I’m developing inspired by the Black Hack/Dungeon World and other common sense rulings I’ve come across over the last decade or so. The version I was using for this game is called Fighting Old School Fantasy, inspired by 80s British D&D and Fighting Fantasy (aka BOSR), and features the familiar Test your Luck mechanic from Fighting Fantasy for Saving Throws, hence the name.

I originally planned to run the Shrine of Kollchap as written straight from What is Dungeons and Dragons?

“Many years ago, the Shrine of Kollchap flourished. Priests of Chaos made human sacrifices, and their servitors raided the lands around for new victims to satisfy the thirst of the Chaotic god. The villagers were, at first, too terrified to do anything, but at length collected a small army and appealed to the King for aid. He sent only his champion, Amaul, bearing the Sword of the Sorcerer. Together, they marched to Kollchap and drove out the priests and their allies. Amaul, however, was killed in the assault, and the sword has never been seen again. Just recently, the Priests of Chaos have begun to reoccupy Kollchap, and some villagers have been abducted. If the Sword of the Sorcerer were to be recovered, the shrine could once again be cleared out and, this time, finally destroyed.

From “”What is Dungeons and Dragons?”” the original British D&D for Dummies published by Puffin in 1982! I’ll be using the D101 Hack, my own take on rules-light OSR DnD with modern rulings (inspired by the Black Hack).”
OSR, D20, Grimdark

The four player characters were the Fighter, Thief, Magician, and Templar (= cleric). On the day, I couldn’t find the book, so I improvised the adventure, and the Shrine of Chaos was born. Also, somewhere along my ramblings, the Forest of Gloom, which riffs heavily on the old Fighting Fantasy book the Forest of Doom, got thrown into the mix.

The adventure started in Little Town (a town barely out of village size, full of little people, Halflings, Dwarfs, etc ) that forces of chaos had recently attacked. The PCs had beaten off an attack by Orcs and Goblins, earning them two Achievements in the process, allowing them to level up and gain perks. I wanted to present 2nd level characters, because as a con game I thought it would be more interesting. There were strong indications that chaos was regrouping beyond the Forest of Gloom, at the legendary Shrine of Chaos. So a concerned Mayor had a chat with the characters in the local Tavern and hired them to go to the Shrine to see if this was true. There was also the matter of the lost Sword of the Sorcerer of the hero, Amaul, lost there in a previous assault on the Shrine.

Our little adventuring party then passed through The Forest of Gloom, intending to talk to the local Wizard in residence, Garrick Greenback (aka Old Greeny). They easily made it to the centre of the wood where the Wizard’s Tower stood proudly in a clearing. Still, Old Greeny was not willing to tell them where the Shrine was unless they sorted out a band of Goblins who were trying to capture the giant Gloom Wolves, who den in the wood, for use as mounts. The Goblins were dealt with through a combination of negotiation and intimidation, and finally by trapping them in the clearing with the wolves they were trying to capture. The party left to the sounds of the mama wolves and pups having lunch. Returning to Old Greeny, he was more than happy to tell them the location of the Shrine, because they had got rid of the goblins, without indiscriminately killing the wolves.

Beyond the forest, in a blasted fen, lay the ruins of the Shrine of Chaos. A group of Hobgoblin soldiers out camped on the ruined temple, where the trapdoor entrance to the actual underground shrine was, had their leaders picked off by the Thief (we decided to make Backstab into Stealth Attack, so roll to hit with advantage and double damage did the job) and quickly routed into the night. Descending into the underground, the characters encountered a group of Zombies, which the Templar quickly turned, sending them running into the next room. Where a group of chaos cultists, dancing naked around a fire pit, were it appeared they were summoning up a chaos horror beyond a door that no man was meant to open. Turns out the Chaos Cultists were misguided Talls, the only human family from Little Town, trying to appease Chaos by venerating it. So the characters (and Zombies) quickly persuaded them to flee the scene. The Zombies shambled off into a dark archway and beyond, just in time for the sealed door to crack open, revealing the Shrine’s Champion of Chaos…an undead Amaul, resurrected by the chaos powers of the shrine, wielding the Sword of the Sorcerer! Another successful Turn Undead (despite it being a difficult one, which saw the player roll successfully below half WIS on a D20) and Amaul is fleeing before the Templar’s boldly presented Symbol of Righteousness. More “Stealth Attacks”, this time with a sword, from the Thief, and the fighter finally getting in the act, and being exceptionally lucky and rolling a critical, doing maximum damage, and Amaul didn’t stand a chance!

The characters triumphantly returned to Little Town, where they were hailed as heroes and rewarded financially. They donated the Sword of the Sorcerer to the rather neglected local Church of Law to stave off any future attacks emanating from the Shrine of Chaos.

So the game was a triumphant success!

But is this D&D? Well, not the D&D that we played when I was in my teens in the 1980s. But that may be that with players being able to make rolls against any of their character’s abilities with advantage (roll twice, pick the best result) as dictated by their character class and perks (special abilities earned as they gain levels), means that suddenly there are more options than just fighting creatures. Also, we were all thoughtful, middle-aged folk, rather than bloodthirsty teenage boys! So, after much soul-searching, I’m okay with that because we all had a ton of fun playing the game.

With the prototype being such a success on iI’m going to be developing the D101 Hack to be the D20 class/level based game that I want to run going forward, that will power not only Fighting Old School Fantasy, which will give the example classes for any Creative Commons SRD that I produce, but a couple of other short D20 games I have in my head, currently bursting to get out.

Here’s a picture of the game and its players (many thanks) , which was held over Role VTT.

Swords Against the Shadows, the End is Nigh!

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As I type we are in the last two and half days of the Swords Against the Shadow’s Kickstarter.

The main rulebook was funded in seventy two minutes! So in the remaining time we’ve been busy funding stretch goals that are going in a separate book/pdf called, Swords Against the Shadows. So this means backers get two for the price of one books!

Here’s the work in progress cover by Dan Barker, who will be colouring the final piece.

So far we’ve funded nine stretch goals, which cover things like rules for Companions, an adventure generator, a Age of Sail settting and two adventures.

Now in the final days of the Kickstarter, we see the end of the world approach. The human world that is, as the Serpent Folk who have long scemed in the Shadows come out of it to reclaim thier world in the Snake Bite setting. The final set of stretch goals detail the Serpent Noble character class, if you and your players fancy playing “evil” and being in the driving seat of the Serpent Take over, part of which plays out in the adventure The Fall of Domios. Once we fund those, the campaign rounds out with more character classes (conversions of the remaining exotic character classes from Crypts and Things, and the Necromancer) before making the OGL portions of the game available as a Text Systems Resource Document.

But quick time is running out.

Last Seven Days of the Swords Against the Shadows Kickstarter

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This time next week, our highly successful Kickstarter for our Swords and Sorcery RPG will be over.

Funded in 72 minutes of launching, we’ve smashed through one set of stretch goals, and I posted another set two days ago, of which we’ve already funded one.

As well as the main rulebook, backers will get another book, The Swords Against the Shadows Companion in PDF/POD which contains the following funded stretch goals.

  • Fiendish Folio. Another 25 monsters for the game.
  • Gazetteer of the Jewelled Coast. More details about the example setting.
  • The Tower of Shadows, an introductory adventure.
  • Adventure Generator. A series of random tables to quickly generate Swords and Sorcery adventures.
  • Companions. Party is a bit low on player characters, or one or two players in need of NPC help? This article will not only give tables to create companions randomly, but also some guidance on how to run games for one to two players. 
  • Sails and Sorcery. A second example world, of Golden Age pirates versus a sorcerous secret society that seeks to drown the current Empire of Sail and start the world anew. 

Here’s the cover of the Companion, which is in the process of being fully coloured by its artist Dan Barker.

Swords Against the Shadows now on Kickstarter

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Swords Against the Shadows is a tabletop roleplaying game of epic Swords and Sorcery heroes and anti-heroes pitted against the evils lurking in their world’s shadows. Fight demons from the Outer Dark, and oppose the schemes of malignant Sorcerers, to protect the small pockets of civilisation that survive surrounded by hostile wilderness.  Use the game to recreate thrilling fantasy adventure tales, as told by authors such as Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, and Clark Ashton Smith.

The game is based on the popular pick-up-and-play Black Hack 2nd Edition, modified to meet genre expectations. If you are familiar with the World’s Favourite Roleplaying game, you’ll be right at home here and find much to like in this wonderful rules-light, fast-playing rules set.

The book is 80 pages long, in an A5 softcover format, with black and white illustrations throughout. It features this marvellous front cover by Jon Hodgson. 

At the time of writing, the Kickstarter funded in just over an hour on the first day, and the first three stretch goals have been funded.

World Building for Swords and Sorcery Games

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Here’s an excerpt from the Referee’s section of Swords against the Shadows, coming to Kickstarter soon.

World Building

Here’s a quick list of things to consider when setting up a setting for Swords against the Shadows.

  • Style. What’s the tone and feel of your setting?
  • People. What are the major human nations and cultures?
  • Nations. What important lands exist in the setting?
  • Patrons, Lovers and Nemeses. These are larger than life non-player characters whose schemes frequently involve the characters.
  • Level of Technology/Magic. Most S&S settings are low on magic, being the preserve of Sorcerers and generally considered a bad thing. Likewise, technology can vary from the Stone Age to the Renaissance and all points in between in a setting.
  • Monsters and Mysteries. What enigmas and attendant threats will the characters uncover during their adventures?
  • The State of the World. Overall, considering all of the above, at the beginning of play, what big events are rumbling under the surface, ready to erupt?

Style

This is shorthand for the general theme and tone of your setting.
Here’s a quick list of themes that you can either pick from or roll randomly on a d6 to choose.

1 Swords against Evil. Demons prey on everyday folk, only the swords can protect the innocent.
2 Swords Against the Skullduggery. The world is dominated by powerful factions run by patrons or hidden nemesis whose criminal enterprises are enacted by agents. It is up to the Swords to bring their schemes into the light of day and foil them.
3 Swords for Discovery. Much of the world is unexplored wilderness. Swords are explorers who open up the world, find treasure, and reveal ancient world-changing secrets.
4 The Swords who would be King. Either by design or more likely the characters are thrust into the leadership roles of their local city/kingdom.
5 Swords Against Sorcery. The characters are pitted against the schemes of either a solo Sorcerer or a Cabal who, for some reason, has it in for them.
6 Swords Against the Apocalypse. A great set of events is set in motion that will destroy the Swords’ world unless they get involved and drive the course of destiny.

This is only part of World Building chapter. In it the Jewelled Coast is presented as an example setting, which has been generated using the questions and answers method.

Map of the Jewelled Coast
Map of the Jewelled Coast

Beyond Dread Portals is out!

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After years of development, playtesting and passing drafts between myself and author Paul Mitchener, my favourite version of not-Dnd with its fantastic world-hopping setting is out!

You can now get Beyond Dread Portals, a standalone post-OSR game complete with rules, setting and adventure from the D101 Games web store and Drivethrurpg.com.

Beyond Dread Portals cover by Jon Hodgson
Beyond Dread Portals cover by Jon Hodgson

This is not the end of the adventure, for I have many small supporting releases in development for the game that will arrive over the coming months.

We came, we gamed, we Grogmeeted!

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So it was Grogmeet 2025 last Saturday, and I spent eight hours in the Whitworth Locke side of the convention, running games and catching up with folk.

This is the Grognard Files podcast’s annual convention, attended by Grognards of all ages. It is not specifically an OSR or OSR-inspired convention, but games tended to hark back to the 80s and early 90s, when many attendees took a break for careers and raising families (aka going into deep freeze) before returning to gaming recently.

Grogmeet 2025 at Whitworth Locke, Manchester
OMG its all full of Grogs!

It was the convention of the Ziggurat! If you followed the madness that was the Raise the Ziggurat sale at the end of last year, I brought it, and a couple of tubs of old 80s Citadel figures and some aquarium scenery to act as props for my two games.

Game 1 Saturday Morning: Ziggurat of Gloom

System: Grim and Dangerous (an Oldhammer RPG)

Beddington’s Brewery has hired your battalion of adventurers to escort a wagon train carrying barrels of its finest brew from Dwarfchester across the Painine Way to the thirsty students at the Royal College of Magic in the town of Uddersfield. 

The problem is that Night Goblins are following you and have been forced to take defensive positions off-road at the strange rain-soaked stone structure locals call The Ziggurat of Gloom!

Grim and Dangerous is a reimagined roleplaying game inspired by the early editions of Warhammer, aka Oldhammer. It has a simple roll under D20 mechanic, with characters having career focuses and special abilities to distinguish themselves from one another. This adventure draws heavily on the White Box of Warhammer, Warhammer 1st Edition.   Please note that this game is in development at playtest stage.

I’ll be posting more about Grim and Dangerous in its own future post when it gets revealed. This is game in development looks hard at the Oldhammer games (Warhammer 1st, its second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle, up to first edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) and inspired by the feel of those games and does its own rules light roll under skill on a D20 thing. This was its inaugural game, and overall, the prototype rules held up and did what I wanted them to, aided and abetted by players who grasped its concepts and ran like heck with them.

Happy players at Grogmeet 2025
Happy players after their characters had defeated waves of screaming Night Goblins and cracked open the Ziggurat.

Special thanks to Andy Hemming (pictured on the far right in the above photo), who provided the entire force of Night Goblins (from the 80s!), some female adventurers and dignified elven followers to compliment my scruffy 80s Citadel lead. To say Andy was like a child in a sweet shop would be an understatement.

Ziggurat of Gloom at Grogmeet 2025
Initial troop deployments at the Ziggurat of Gloom
GM Newt Newport at Grogmeet 2025
Myself in my element GMing

Intermission: Newt Socialises!

A three-hour break(?) due to unexpected scheduling adjustments gave me ample opportunity to catch up with folks I’ve not spoken to in a couple of years. This was one of my aims of the day, because I unexpectedly had to drop out of my regular convention attendance a couple of years ago due to family commitments. This really was nice because the space and time around the games to chat and catch up really makes a con for me.

Then all of a sudden, the gaming room filled up, and it was time for Game 2.

Game 2 Saturday Afternoon: The Pyramids of Marn

System: Beyond Dread Portals

Three pyramids have been discovered in the jungles of the world of Marn. Three factions are bidding for a license to explore them in the Hall of Departure in the Explorers Guild of Ys. Ys ruler, the Autarch, to prevent in-fighting, is only allowing one group at a time to walk through a portal in the Guild Hall to the ancient ruins. Since your explorers will be risking life and limb in this strange world, they get to choose who will be their patron for this expedition.  Choose wisely. Not only will it determine how profitable the visit to Marn will be, but who you potentially make enemies of.

Beyond Dread Portals is a world-hopping D20 Fantasy game by Paul “The Tweed Meister” Mitchener. Loosely based on early D&D, modified to meet the needs of the setting. A baroque decaying renaissance-era world of the city of Ys and the worlds connected to it by a system of magic portals.  As members of the Explorer’s Guild, there are expeditions to join, loot and secrets to be found, and a web of powerful patrons to navigate carefully. All under the deathly gaze of the undead ruler, the Autarch!

Regular readers of this blog will know Beyond Dread Portals by now. It’s within a hairs breath of being released (just waiting for a proof). This adventure was quickly conjured up, as an excuse to use the Ziggurat again on the table. Combined with the aquarium scenery, that worked very well, and a list of bullet points was fleshed out to become a weird and wonderful game of exploration. Despite the characters being capable 5th level, they managed to weasel their way away from getting involved in any combat, with some very clever problem-solving. I’ll be writing this one up for future release in some format.

And then it was all over and home to an evening back in the loving embrace of my family.

Big thanks to all my players and co-organisers Chris “Dirk the Dice” Hart and Blythy.

Here’s to 2026.

Ziggurat miniture with dice and flyer

BTW, if you are wondering where I got the Ziggurat from, it is made by Ian from Fenris Games and is available via his website.

D&D 2024 Pre-Release Anticipation

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So, I’ve been largely ignoring the new version of D&D, with the exception of the 50th Anniversary Celebration stamps put out by Royal Mail featuring the art of Wayne Reynolds (a personal friend). I’m too busy being obsessive about my own games and the resurgence of Chaosium with RuneQuest (of which I’m a huge fan).

Full disclosure: this is where I stand with D&D, summed up by three takes on it.

  • My D&D: Crypts and Things – which leans heavily into Grimdark Swords and Sorcery genre-wise and uses OD&D (via Swords and Wizardry) as a clean base with some comfort of life changes to make it less creaky. Runner up Beyond Dread Portals,which brings a looser post-D&D but still class/level-based game to the table.
  • My Modern D&D: Vanilla would be 13th Age, and I recently backed the second edition. I’ve played and run this more than I can remember, and every time, it has been a smooth experience that’s made everyone around the table have a good time. Setting-specific and slightly lighter, but in the same narrative ball park, and slightly post-D&D, I’d go with Paul Mitchener’s Beyond Dread Portals game.
  • My OSR D&D. Until recently, I would have said Swords and Wizardry, but Old School Essentials intrigues me greatly and, more importantly, seems to have a greater pull to the table than S&W.

I like 5th Edition. I’ve run a few games, mainly testing/pilots, but I find it lukewarm. While the players have always had a good time, it’s not the AMAZING LET’S PLAY THIS AGAIN time that 13th Age or Beyond Dread Portals is, and I’m a bit ho-hum as a GM.

I had a go at publishing material for 5th Edtion, with the Sorcerer Under the Mountain, and had a line of modules written by others lined up, which will soon see the light of day. Still, COVID really knocked the wind out of my sails on that one. Hence the huge delay and getting the stretch goals for Tales from the Sorcerer of the Mountain Kickstarter out.

But I genuinely like D&D, despite my D100 addiction (see OpenQuest/RuneQuest), so I’ve watched with fascination as Wizards of the Coast has geared up this edition.

Dropping into bullet points, some thoughts while I wait for the book to arrive today.

  • While it was harsh in the amount of upset it caused at the time, I’m actually quite thankful for the OGL Crisis. It showed that despite Corporate owners thinking otherwise, D&D is a public phenomenon that transcends them practically and creatively. It also caused a lot of publishers, including myself, to clear up their relationship with the OGL going forward (or not, as the case may be).
  • The digitalisation of D&D? Whatever, for me, it’s a physical book and friends around a gaming table. I shall be gleefully encouraging this approach but with a group down at a local club or a home family game.
  • One D&D, D&D 6th, D&D 2024? Again, what they call it transcends what the player base calls it (see MyD&D above for my definitions). As a computer software developer it amuses me that they have dropped editions from the nameing, which makes it much easier for them to roll out changes and not have to answer the whole thorny “is this a new edition, do I really need it?” (answer from my 40+ years of experience, no).
  • If D&D 5th was their chance to “unite the tribes” of D&D, perhaps D&D 2024 as well as being their 5.5 part marketing move to make more money out of it, but also a chance to make D&D 5th more its own thing.
  • As a GM I hope to really click with the new version. For the last ten years of 5th Ed has been like some party that the world and his dog have been invited to, and I’ve been strangely absent except for a bit of popping in to see what is going on. I’ll be first to admit that its my own fantastism over D100 games, where its very easy to default to D&D being an inferior game system, and being busy exploring the OSR. Perhaps its time to take the launch of the new version as a chance to run a campaign and take a real deep dive?
  • I’m going to run it. Hopefully, it will be a laid-back, once-a-month/week game, and I can publish anything new I come up with through D101.
  • Is familiarity why I keep coming back to D&D, even when I’m being obsessively nerdy about other games? It’s my wife. When she tells work colleagues what I do with D101 Games, she simply says, “It’s D&D.”
  • I’m genuinely excited about this! (not going to think to hard why).

So Happy D&D Release Day!

Beyond Dread Portals Ending Soon

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Beyond Dread Portals is an exciting roleplaying game of world-hopping fantasy by Paul Mitchener (author of Liminal). The easy-to-learn rules are built from a core loosely based on the world’s first fantasy roleplaying game, tailored to fit the setting.

It’s in its final five days of funding.

Backers have already funded extra content. Adventures, NPCs, and background information. Here are the highlights of what the campaign has achieved.

  • All backers will receive an extra introductory adventure, Fort on the Edgelands. A mini sandbox that takes a classic adventure from the 1980s and reimagines it through Beyond Dread Portals baroque fantasy take on D20. In the final five days, more stretch goals are up for grabs!
  • Also, during the campaign, the Signed and sent version of the book has been upgraded from a POD copy to a properly printed version with sewn pages, better-quality paper and a ribbon.
  • We have achieved several community goals through backer numbers, such as the Traveller’s Guide to Polydrones, a mini-supplement combining new monsters, game lore, and adventure ideas.
  • VTT support has been added via Role VTT (playrole.com).

But quick, it’s coming to the end of Kickstarter in five days.

Fort on the Edgelands at Grogmeet 2023

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Over the weekend, I took this introductory adventure out for a spin at Manchester’s premier Old School convention run by the Grognard Files Podcast.

Grogmeet 2023 in full flow

I had a full table of four players, one of whom Chris (hello 🙂 ) was a backer.

After going through the pre-generated characters, which are included in the main rulebook, and using them to explain the setting and the system, we grabbed coffee and got stuck into it.  The game unfolded in three acts.

Act 1 was a gentle stroll around the City of Ys. From the grand Guildhall of the League of Explorers, where there characters, who the players already knew each other, found out that a special treasure hunting license was being issued to go to Erebus, which is normally closed. All they had to do was navigate the ever-shifting streets of Ys and make their way to the Ruby Court.  The crimson-clad Judge Vinter gave them the license, which gave them superior treasure rights. 5% taxation upon return to Ys rather than the usual 20%. The players then choose which of the two available Patrons they wanted to back their expedition. This gave them the promise of more rewards, plus a mission to pressure. The liberation of the Fort’s Garrison, who were trapped on Erebus.

Act 2, stepping through the Dread Portal, the characters emerge into the courtyard of Lion Fort. They spent most of this act getting a sense of where they were and what factions were present in the fort. The most important one was the Agent of the Autrach, a skeleton in a gibbet who sinisterly waved hello when the characters arrived. This strange creature is also the gatekeeper of the portal, which is now shut until the characters fulfil their mission and can kill with its mind!  After finding out who was who in the fort. they quickly made friends with the Garrison commander, and a plan was forged to kill the Agent, open the Portal and return to Ys with the Garrison.

em>Act 3 was a quick raid into the nearby Mushroom Caves and executing the plan to free the Garrison and get home. While the other acts had leaned heavily into roleplaying with all the fantastical NPCs they met, with the occasional skill test, this act was all about action. Sneaking past the ruined colony and its undead farmers, ambushing the goblins in the entrance cave – which escalated into a quick combat. Then, seizing the magic Spear of Dawn from the Goblin’s leader and using it to set the fungus-based creature on fire. Rushing back to the fort, sneaking up on the Agent, thrusting the burning Spear of Dawn, a potent anti-undead weapon, into its bones killing it. Finally, the group’s wizard opened the portal, and back to Ys, where they squared it all with Judge Vinder.

Phew. And this is only one way through the adventure, which is a mini-sandbox.  I’m highly happy with its initial outing and overjoyed to find when I got home that it has been funded and will be available to backers as a stretch goal.

Beyond Dread Portals is in its final week over at Kickstarter and is available to back until Sunday 19th November.