Old School D&D - Session 3 - 30th January 2013

WARNING! Contains spoilers for Dyson's Delve.

There was no game last week because I was away on business, but that just let me catch up with documenting the previous two sessions. This week we had a full house.

Characters:

• Zarjaz the Zazzy - Magic-User 1 - Male
• Shanks Mcspindlewort - Thief 1 - Male
• Finbar son of Finwe - Elf 1 - Male
• Delast Elfenprincess - Elf 1 - Female
• Barack Kihnos - Cleric 1 - Male

The story continues ...

Searching the corpse that had so recently been strangling Shanks, Zarjaz retrieves an ornate dagger that had been stabbed through its chest. The dagger is inscribed with the name "Kmeleneb" and he detects that it is enchanted. Zarjaz takes possession of the dagger for the moment but this is not without controversy. Delast Elfenprincess tries to claim it as "The Dagger of Methanwe", an elven artifact, whereas Shanks (unexpectedly supported by Finbar) wants it because he is "the dagger guy" and the most likely to use it.

The party proceed to investigate the door in the south-west and find it to be a stone slab sealed around with wax. Shanks starts to chip the wax away whilst the rest of the party kibitz and/or mill around uselessly. 2 more skeletal soldiers march into the room from the north corridor and are swiftly despatched. During the fight Zarjaz throws the ornate dagger and Shanks uses the opportunity to appropriate it. Whilst Shanks returns to working on the door Finbar and Delast follow the corridor north into a chapel containing a dried up font and a door leading north back into the east-west corridor.

Eventually the wax sealed door is opened to reveal another small crypt containing a more ornate sarcophagus. Once more Shanks levers it open, after all what are the odds on something bad happening this time? As it happens he's correct and nothing ill befalls the party. The occupant is merely skeletal remains with nothing of interest ... To Barack's disgust Shanks takes some finger-bones to try and sell as holy-relics when they return to Ethanfeld.

After having been in the labyrinth for about 4 hours the party leaves and returns to their camp-site to rest. Delast hunts and catches a brace or rabbits. Finbar looks for herbs and comes back with flowers in his hair and nettle stings on his arms (rolls 1 on a d20). During the evening Zarjaz casts his Sleep spell on Shanks to steal back the ornate dagger, the rest of the party looks on in disbelief. Otherwise the night passes uneventfully and Shanks and Barack recover somewhat from their injuries. In the morning Barack casts the auguries to see whether it is he or Shanks who should benefit from Thor's blessing (Cure Light Wounds spell) and strangely enough it is himself.

The party reenter the cave and follow the rock cut staircase spiralling down to the second level. The staircase opens out into a small cave containing a ransacked nest surrounded by mangled corpses. Following a tunnel west they reach a fork offering north-west and south-west choices. Choosing the latter they enter a largish cave containing another rat's nest, this one occupied. There is a discussion about throwing lamp oil over the nest and setting it on fire. Delast decides this is a waste of oil and instead shoots a flaming arrow into the nest. As this smoulders and the nest begins to catch the occupants erupt out and swarm over the party. In the ensuing combat Finbar is rendered unconscious and Barack gets a rat attached to his unmentionables causing him to scream like a girl. Zarjaz ends this farce with a Sleep spell. The party carry Finbar out of the cave and back to camp. There they make the decision to pack up and return to Ethanfeld to heal up properly and resupply.

After an uneventful journey the party arrives back in Ethanfeld where they take rooms at a good inn. Over the next five days the injured heal, Finbar and Delast trade spells and Shanks fails to pass off any of the finger-bones as "Holy Relics of Saint Odin". The only other event of note is that Zarjaz is "persuaded" to give up the ornate dagger (Delast casts Sleep on him) which is donated to the temple of Thor in exchange for six Healing potions. Zarjaz is somewhat "put out" by this but mollified when the elves trade spells with him. During this period of downtime the party discuss their doubts about finding Dyson Logos alive after all this time.

Rested and resupplied the party return east to their previous campsite. They find that during the intervening period the goblins have erected a crude sign outside the cave saying "Kep Out! Goblinz only". Finbar takes the sign with the intention of slapping goblins with it - apparently this passes as irony amongst elvish circles*.

* In our post-apocalyptic campaign Finbar's player had a character called Clint who owned a "STOP" road-sign. This was a favoured weapon until it was "stolen" by a giant mutant plant that the party nicknamed "Audrey". Forever after he would bemoan the loss of his sign, usually whilst mowing his foes to death with automatic weapon fire, or on one occasion beating an enemy to death with his own helmet.

After camping up for the night the party returns to the fork in the tunnel on the second level and chooses the north-west tunnel. After about 15ft this opens into another cave with the tunnel continuing north-west. As they pass through this cave a pale humanoid in ancient finery detaches itself from a shadowy alcove and strikes out at Finbar with clawed fingernails. Despite this cinematic entrance and some resulting party apprehension the ghoul is quickly dispatched and looted of its finery (purse, gold signet ring, massive decorative key on a heavy gold chain and pair of silver bracelets). The party is unharmed.

Continuing north-west the party reach a T-junction with a tunnel leading off to the south. Just beyond this another rock cut staircase descends further into the labyrinth. The southern tunnel leads into a large low-ceilinged cave scattered with the bones of rats, goblins, humans and others. Shanks and Zarjaz (?) crawl around amongst this detritus but find nothing of note. They surmise that the ghoul lived here.

After some debate the party follows the stairs down to the third level with Shanks taking point. The stairs end in a stone archway and an alert Shanks is fortunate to avoid injury as a massive rock falls from the arch. A slightly less fortunate Zarjaz is hit by a smaller rock that bounces of his pointed hat; leading to general hilarity. Beyond the archway is a small cave from which a tunnel leads north into a bigger cave. The floor of this second cave is littered with (still juicy) broken bodies. At the north end of this cave a carved stone archway leads into a wide, worked stone staircase that leads further down. A tunnel leads south-east.

As the party enter the cave the five bodies start to rise from their repose with a chorus of moans. Barack raises his holy symbol and turns 2 of the zombies who shuffle off down the stairs. Finbar and Delast charge the remainder with Shanks in his usual support role. The zombies are defeated at the expense of some minor injuries. There proves to be nothing worth looting on the bodies.

The party follows the tunnel south-east for about 50ft before it opens out into a huge cavern. The walls are carved with many burial alcoves, the gnawed, crushed and shattered contents of which lie strewn across the cavern floor. Three more recent broken human bodies lie shredded on the floor. The party cautiously make their way around this U-shaped cavern heading west, then south before turning back east on themselves. Shanks and Zarjaz sift through the remains but only recover a single silver piece.

Eventually after about an hour of investigation the party passes east out of the cavern and through a stone archway into a short section of worked stone corridor that ends in a stone slab door. This is forced open and leads into a wide stone corridor heading north. More burial alcoves are built into the corridor's walls. The party follow the corridor with Shanks and Zarjaz continuing to take the time to search the ancient remains.

About 40ft up the corridor there is a side corridor leading east down a shallow flight of steps. 3 zombies lurch out of this corridor but are turned back by Barack. Finbar and Delast follow them down the steps into an ornately decorated sunken crypt. Once backed into the crypt the zombies turn to attack. As the party rushes to engage them they are surprised as 4 foul robber flies drop from above. The battle is fierce and closely fought but with the help of the invaluable Sleep spell the party are ultimately victorious.

The game session ended here.

Old School D&D - Session 2 - 16th January 2013

WARNING! Contains spoilers for Dyson's Delve.

Characters:

• Zarjaz the Zazzy - Magic-User 1 - Male
• Shanks Mcspindlewort - Thief 1 - Male
• Finbar son of Finwe - Elf 1 - Male
• Delast Elfenprincess* - Elf 1 - Female
• Barack Kihnos - Cleric 1 - Male

* player absent

The story continues ...

Tired and wounded the party returns to Ethanfeld to rest, heal and resupply. With their ill-gotten gains they buy tents and other camping equipment, rations, bandages, lanterns for all, copious quantities of lamp oil and 2 mules to help them carry everything. In addition Finbar properly arms himself with a sabre, shield and longbow.

One day later the party heads back into the Dragonbone Peaks. They are joined by a new companion, Barack Kihnos, an initiate in the Cult of Thor. From his player we learn that in order to progress in the cult Barack must personally kill a (currently unspecified) number of goblins and return with their left ears as evidence. Arriving back in the vicinity of the cave the party set up a semi-permanent camp, choosing the shelter of a nearby scrub covered knoll in the hopes that it won't be disturbed by the local goblins.

The following morning they make their way up to the cave and are surprised by 2 goblin lookouts who shoot arrows ineffectively at them. With a holy oath Barack charges the goblin's position with Finbar in close pursuit. The goblins are quickly defeated and with evident satisfaction Barack takes his first trophy.

Barack and Finbar take the lead as the party re-enters the cave and this time decides to take right-hand tunnels. In the first new cave that they enter they disturb 3 ornery giant ferrets picking over the remains of another rat's nest. In the ensuing fight Barack is badly injured and uses up his Cure Light Wounds spell. His suggestion that the party rests up so that he might regain his spell was met with jeers from the Magic-User and Elves.

Continuing east from the large cave and turning south the party discovers a rock cut staircase descending further into the labyrinth. They choose to ignore this for the moment. By backtracking and following a narrow tunnel north-east they find themselves back at the point where the tunnels break into the worked stone east-west corridor. They head west along this corridor back into the goblin chambers where they find that the bodies of the slain have been removed. With some effort the door in the north-west corner of the first goblin chamber is forced open to reveal an ascending spiral staircase. Shanks climbs this for about 30 ft where it terminates in a trapdoor. After another struggle he opens this to reveal an entrance from the tower ruins that the party had missed during their original search.

Returning to the corridor the party head east for about 20 ft until it turns north to open into a large room. At the angle of the corridor there is a door in the south wall that has been barred from the outside and marked with a crudely painted skull. As they are considering opening this door Shanks hears the faint sounds of conversation approaching from the north. Forewarned they ambush 2 more goblins and their trained giant ferret coming up another staircase from the lower level. Zarjaz (or Finbar?) uses his Sleep spell and the goblins are unceremoniously dispatched.

In the south wall of the south-east corner of this room is another barred door also marked with a skull. After first checking it for traps, Shanks opens this door to reveal a long neglected corridor decorated with dusty webs. Shanks creeps down the corridor with a lantern, Barack and Finbar follow not so carefully behind whilst Zarjaz and Delast stay by the door. The corridor opens into a crypt decorated with a mosaic of the life of Saint Ulther and containing an ornate sarcophagus. The corridor continues south out of this chamber and into darkness. Despite the protestations of Barack, Shanks proceeds to check the sarcophagus for traps before starting to pry off its heavy lid. However before the sarcophagus is half-way open the party are alerted by the approaching sound of hollow footsteps.

A phalanx of 9 animated skeletons armed with spears, shields and scraps of ancient armour marches into the crypt from the south arranging themselves in battle formation. Shanks retreats towards the door whilst Finbar and Barack move to intercept. With outstretched holy-symbol Barack tries and fails to turn the undead; apparently Thor looks unkindly on tomb robbers. Finbar and Barack trade blows with the skeletons whilst slowly withdrawing up the corridor. Shanks and Delast provide support from the back line with thrown dagger, Magic Missile and bow. Ultimately the skeletons are defeated and the only injury sustained to the party is one of Shanks' fumbled daggers buried in Barack's back.

After taking a break to rest, bind wounds and argue, the party returns to the crypt. Shanks completes ransacking the sarcophagus; beheading its occupant for "safety reasons" and picking apart its wrappings in a search for loose change. The only treasure recovered is a silver holy-symbol. Investigating the corridor from which the skeletons had come the party finds two more doors: a closed door to the west and an open door to the south. The southern door leads into a chamber filled with mostly empty burial alcoves that the party presume had contained the skeletons.

The western door leads into another tomb with a corridor heading back north and an alcove containing a door in the south-west. This tomb contains another sarcophagus. In a demonstration that experience is not always a great teacher, Shanks soon checks it for traps and starts to lever it open*. Barely has the seal been broken than one rotted hand bursts out grabbing Shanks by the throat whilst the other sweeps the lid off. Struggling for breath and clawing at the creature's grip with one hand, Shanks manages to smash his lantern over the corpse. Clambering out of its sarcophagus with a roar the now alight corpse throws Shanks against the wall like a rag doll (reducing him to 0 HP, but a roll on the critical table leaves him still able to act but with flesh wounds; -2 to-hit). Barack attempts to turn the undead, failing once again, but Zarjaz (or possibly Shanks) successfully throws more oil on the blaze. Finbar and Barack stand toe-to-toe with the creature but it doesn't finally go down until hit by one of Shanks' thrown daggers.

The game session ended here.

* As a GM I appreciated this "honest" playing of a 1st Level Character. How often have I seen the opening of a coffin treated as an elaborate set-piece where the occupant is barely given the opportunity to moan once before it has been dowsed in holy-water, acid, flaming-oil beheaded and dismembered?

Old School D&D - Session 1 - 9th January 2013

WARNING! Contains spoilers for Dyson's Delve.

Characters:

• Zarjaz the Zazzy - Magic-User 1 - Male
• Shanks Mcspindlewort - Thief 1 - Male
• Finbar son of Finwe - Elf 1 - Male
• Delast Elfenprincess - Elf 1 - Female

The story begins ...

In the settlement of Ethanfeld on the north-east shores of the Smoking Bay and gateway to adventure in the Dragonbone Peaks.

Zarjaz and Shanks are in the local tavern (where else) taking a sabbatical from a commission to recover Dyson Logos, the missing eldest son of Caedwine Logos, Duke of Muncaester. When last heard of Dyson was on an expedition with some of his cronies to discover the whereabouts of the Crypt of Saint Ulther; rumoured to lie beneath a ruined tower somewhere in the Dragonbone Peaks. From their players we learn that Zarjaz and Shanks are not the most reputable of fellows and have only taken this commission to avoid a public hanging for an incident involving a Sleep spell in a Muncaester bordello. Their original companions having learnt of this reputation late in the day have recently abandoned them in Ethanfeld and Zarjaz and Shanks are either too cowardly or too smart to proceed into the Dragonbone Peaks alone.

Delast and Finbar are in Ethanfeld apparently searching for "lost elven artifacts" but at the moment seem to be down on their luck. Finbar in particular has only the clothes he stands up in and a chainmail shirt (he later obtains a big stick to use as a temporary weapon). The story behind this misfortune is unclear but may have involved a halfling thief. Another theory offered up by the players is that it involved Shanks Mcspindlewort wearing a pair of hairy slippers.

The two parties became acquainted in the usual manner (with sarcasm, jibes, GM rail-roading, etc.) and voted to join forces instead of fighting each other, though it was a close run thing. In what I suspect will become a running joke, Zarjaz and Shanks deliberately "mistook" the elves for a married couple with Delast being the male and Finbar the female. There were long negotiation about how any loot would be divided between party members. These concluded that the elves will get any elven artifacts but may or may not be entitled to anything else; the elves understood that they will get a 50% share of anything else, Zarjaz and Shanks did not have the same understanding.

The next morning, with the help of directions from the locals, the party set out on a riverside trail leading into the Dragonbone Peaks. They are all on foot except for Zarjaz who is riding his donkey "Kong" (groans from the audience); who is according to Shanks, "the brains of the operation." At about midday they come across the remains of a farmer's cart recently despoiled. The party speculated that the culprits were orcs, but if this is the case then they had unusually large feet. They consider following them off the trail but Kong refuses. By dusk the party has reached the foothills and located the tower ruin. They are disappointed to find that the standing ruins barely reach shoulder height and are heavily overgrown. After poking around ineffectively for an hour they camp down for the night.

The next morning the party split into two groups to scout the area. After a couple of hours, Shanks locates a trail leading into a gulley and ultimately a cave mouth in the hillside about 10 yards beneath the summit. With Zarjaz carrying a lantern behind them Finbar and Delast tale the lead down a cave passage that soon opens out into a large uneven floored limestone cave. Further passageways lead north, east and south.

Deciding to explore by always turning left the party follows the north passageway into a smaller cave. This contains a large nest of twigs, leaves, moss, small bones, and shredded paper. Finbar pokes it several times with his stick and a dozen giant rats erupt from within and swarm over the party. There are several rounds of sword swinging during which half the rats are slain at the expense of Delast being seriously mauled and some minor scratches to the rest of the party. Zarjaz decides enough is enough and uses his Sleep spell to deal with the remainder. A small purse of coins is recovered from the nest.

At Zarjaz and Delast's request the party agree to camp up, tend to their wounds and relearn spells. Rather than going back above ground they decide to hold up in the nest cave. They post watches and during the night two goblins pass through the large cave and are dealt with - I forget by whom. Finbar takes one of their short swords to replace his stick, likewise Shanks takes their knives to supplement his throwing daggers.

In the morning the party resume their exploration heading east from the large cave and following a twisting passage north-east further into the hill. Ignoring several side passages they reach a point where the rough cut passage breaks into a worked stone east-west corridor, presumably part of the tower's cellars. Turning left they follow the corridor to a closed door from behind which they discern firelight and the chit-chat of goblins.

Finbar bursts through the door with Delast (now using her bow) and Shanks (with throwing daggers) close behind. The room beyond is roughly square with exits in the north-west and south-west corners. They surprise 2 goblins sat around a fire-pit and one is killed before it even manages to stand. The second runs for the south-west exit. Delast wings it with an arrow before it disappears out of sight shouting an alarm. Shanks pursues the wounded goblin out of the room down a corridor and into a guard room containing 4 alerted goblins. He throws a dagger to finish off the injured one before scurrying back down the corridor with the others in pursuit. In the corridor Finbar intercepts and holds off Shank's pursuers with Delast providing missile support. The fight is ended by Zarjaz with a Sleep spell.

Having looted the goblins the party makes its way into the guard room in time to be surprised by a door in the west wall being thrown open by a large hobgoblin. With a battle-cry it charges into the room swinging its battleaxe at Shanks. He dodges deftly away and Finbar steps into the fray. Blows are traded and wounds taken on both sides before Finbar delivers the killing blow. He takes the battleaxe as a trophy pronouncing it to be a "lost elven artifact".

After resting for a few minutes the party head through the western door. They follow a corridor into a chamber that by goblin standards is lavishly decorated with a ruined four poster bed, table and chair. A search reveals a lock-box which Shanks manages to open (just before Delast discovers the key). Within are 500 sp in coins, gems and cheap jewellery.

The game session ended here.

New year, new game

We were supposed to start the year with a continuation of our Mongoose RuneQuest II game. But the GM had a lousy day at work,  or more precisely a lousy day sitting for hours in his car on the Motorway. So rather than playing a boardgame I stepped in to GM at short notice.

This suited me as I'd spent the Christmas vacation reading OSR blogs and rekindling my enthusiasm for old school D&D. After considering Castles & Crusades (which I already have, though something about the Siege Engine sticks in my craw) and checking out eBay for a copy of the RulesCyclopedia (the only item I truly regret disposing of during a massive purge 10 years ago -  WotC please reprint this) I had ordered hard-copies of Labyrinth Lord to supplement my PDFs.

After carefully interrogating me to ensure I wasn't intending to inflict 3rd Edition on them (I don't think any of us have ever looked at 4th) my players seemed equally enthusiastic. We had soon created a Magic User (Zarjaz the Zazzy), Thief (Shanks Mcspindlewort) and two Elves (Finbar son of Finwe and Delast Elfenprincess*). After a much longer delay they were equipped and even named.

* A mocking reference to a fellow male gamer (not part of our current group) with a seemingly unbroken history of playing high charisma, high comeliness female characters. Though it has to be said that he isn't the only player in my experience with this reputation. Anyway, when last heard of his current character's appellation was "The Last Elven Princess". Ironically of course the player playing this new CHA 15 female character is male ;-)

Initial house rules:

If this game proves to "have legs" these will no doubt expand into my own D&D Mine.

• Character generation using 4d6 choose the best 3 in order
• 2 for 1 attribute exchange for primary requisites as described in the LL rules, but at the time didn't notice the restrictions such as not dropping CHA - perhaps these weren't present in Mentzer?
• Maximum HP at 1st Level
• AC by Character Class
• Weapon damage by Character Class
• Ascending ACs - instead of explaining how THAC0 works at least once every session
• Warhammer style critical hits when 0 HP reached

I have selected Dyson Logos' Dyson's Delve as a minimal effort starting adventure and eschewed my home grown Greater Gallia setting (which I may revisit in a later post) for Robert Conley's Blackmarsh in order to provide some campaign background information.

A report of our first session will follow ...

2012 my gaming year in retrospective

Except when I'm away on business our group of 6 players (The League of Ordinary Gentlemen*) gathers around my dining room table every Wednesday evening for about 3 hours. This year's sessions have been starting in a peculiarly civilized fashion as my fiancee has taken to practising on her Grand Piano just before we begin - are we perhaps the only gaming group with such a live music prelude?

* This was going to be the title of my blog but is already being used seems by an American political blog - not linked since I can't be bothered to check they aren't a bunch of nutters.

The year started with a continuation of my Savage Worlds* post-apocalyptic campaign, otherwise known as the "post-apocalyptic nonsense". Though initially I'd intended this to be a gritty, Mad Max influenced campaign, a lack of prep time and the dearth of off-the-shelf material had transformed it into Darwin's World without beneficial mutations (except for selected NPCs). We've used some scenarios from the Exodus RPG, worked our way through Against the Wastelords and New World Order and are now on The Last God. These are published for Darwin's World d20 and are pretty good except for some inconsistencies in the scenario timelines that are difficult to reconcile. In addition The Last God, which is quite a complex sandbox adventure, has some some significant plot holes. Ultimately one of these plot holes, and my improvisational failings as a GM caused this game to stall by the beginning of autumn. It's my hope that we will return to this game, but it might need a rewind or reboot.

* Savage Worlds has been our go-to game for several years but we're rather burnt out on it now. Personally I'm no longer enamoured by its fundamental mechanics and find that "acing" in particular leads to a style of play where either the GM or players are perpetually firefighting the results of extreme dice rolls.

After a few weeks of boardgames and a couple of interesting sessions of a post-war Berlin horror game, our other principal GM kicked off a Mongoose RuneQuest II / Legend Glorantha game that kept us entertained for the last quarter of the year. I've enjoyed this, but several of the characters have ended up feeling rather similar and lifeless which I think might be a weakness of the system when in the hands of frequently tired and not particularly talented "role" players such as ourselves. We've also struggled a bit with determining which combat rolls are "opposed" and with a certain sameness in combat maneuvers: choose location head, bypass armour, maximise damage ;-)

At the end of our last session of the year we decided that in 2013 we will be continuing with the RQ as our principal campaign and that someone else will fill in with some Flaming Carrot  inspired superheroes using an as yet undecided system. In theory I'll be taking a break.

Why is this blog called "Geeks in the Cellar"?

Initially I played Dungeons & Dragons with school friends but thanks to an advert in a relatively early White Dwarf I found a Roleplaying club held on Sundays at a local scout hut in Gatley, Stockport. They were a friendly if dysfunctional bunch of reprobates some of whom still sit around my gaming table 25 years later.

I always assumed that the Gatley club had been running for some while but my best friend, who was there at the time (though he is several years older than me and we wouldn't become friends until much later) was "in" with those who organized it and upon reading a draft of this blog-post commented that the posting of that advert was almost simultaneous with the club starting. I guess it is still possible that I saw it in a back issue. 

As I recall I didn't play a lot of "Red Box" D&D there. Instead I was introduced to WFRP, Palladium, RuneQuest, Judge Dredd, lots of Warhammer Battle ... and presumably AD&D 1st Edition but I don't have any specific memory of the latter. There was also some running around with water pistols, including a "drive by shooting" outside a local shop. I don't think I did any GMing there; at 11 I was almost certainly the youngest and somewhat in awe of my elders, even though many of them can't have been more than 16.

After maybe a year the whole club was kicked out of the scout hut. Apocraphally this was because someone smeared the walls of the toilet with shit. It's not entirely certain that this ever happened, I think it highly unlikely.

My best friend offered the opinion that the event was a concoction to expel the club. After all this time I guess it doesn't matter.

We were temporarily re-homed in the clean and spacious hall of a school in Cheadle. I seem to remember playing a lot of first edition Warhammer 40K there. However we can't have been there more than 6 months before we were moved on again. This time the reason was apparently financial; the club's president had dipped into the kitty to help make his mortgage payments. Again I was just a kid at the time and it's possible the situation was more complicated. Even if true I imagine he meant it to be a short term "loan" and always intended to pay the money back next month. Whatever the full story, the end result was that we had to leave the school and I don't recall seeing him around again.

So when I'm about 14 the club found itself based on the second floor above a rather seedy second hand gaming store in Back Picadilly, Manchester, where we could play both Saturdays and Sundays. Here alas the lease holder gave us free rein to decorate as we pleased and as you might expect from a group of mostly young male geeks this resulted in an already dark room being painted black with a rather amateur attempt rendition of a star-scape implemented with sponge and paintbrush. I remember this venue as always being filthy and I'm told it stank of grease and unwashed gamers; it wasn't being used by anyone else so the impetus to keep it clean was largely absent, in fact it got so bad that on one occasion I brought the vacuum cleaner from home. Not unexpectedly the toilet was especially a hive of scum and villainy. I also remember competition between the separate gaming groups to order the largest round of toasted teacakes at the local McDonald's; 20+ were not unheard of. We were here when the first edition of WEG's d6 Star Wars RPG was released, which I recall being very reluctant to play at first, possibly because of the high regard with which I held the then untainted films. However after the first session I went and bought both the rules and Sourcebook and for a couple of years it was a favoured game.

At about this time my family moved to Stockport and into a large Edwardian property in a very poor state of repair that would take over a decade to rectify. It was however blessed with great size including a very large bedroom for me and extensive cellars. It was also much closer to most of my gaming group. Starting with the occasional midweek or Saturday evening we began to game here frequently. Ultimately with the permission of my parents and after a whirlwind clean and paint of the largest cellar my group decided that we'd had enough of Back Piccadilly and relocated our Sunday game too.

Over the following years until I left for University our group grew into its own small club of up to 4 groups and 20+ gamers scattered over 3 cellar rooms. Most of these gamers joined us from Back Piccadilly as rumours spread of a more convivial environment in what for many was a more convenient location. At this time I was taking more of the GMing duties running 2nd Edition AD&D, Call of Cthulhu, DC Heroes and Star Wars 2nd Edition.

My memory is vague but I think as University approached numbers were already falling as various groups splintered off and started playing elsewhere. At the end I was GMing D&D from the RulesCyclopedia for a group of two or three and probably playing in at least one game too. Our club must have closed in September 1992 with its members either heading like me to University (a minority), drifting into real life or returning to the progenitor club in Manchester, which as I recall was now using a pub function room. The cellar would continue to see gaming action on and off over the next five years when I was on vacation from University but the heyday of Geeks in the Cellar seemed to be over ...

28 years and counting

It's approximately 28 years since I started playing Dungeons & Dragons and I'm not planning to grow out of it soon. To the best of my recollection, I started with a copy of the Fighting Fantasy book The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain which I received as a stocking filler and promptly ignored. After all, what sort of 11 year old boy wants a book for Christmas and anyway I was more interested in programming my Sinclair Spectrum. Fortunately about six months later I discovered that this was unlike any book I'd read before. I must have read a couple more early Fighting Fantasy books before on a trip to Hamleys with my wargaming father I discovered Dungeons & Dragons. However it wasn't Mentzer "Red Box" D&D I came home with (I wasn't exactly sure what to make of it from the cover blurb) but instead the much more exciting Caverns of the Dead floor-plan set from Games Workshop. I guess I had some miniatures and must have made up my own rules because I remember playing some sort of game at the age of 12 with a bemused and tolerant grandfather. The "Red Box" itself (and possibly "Blue Box") probably arrived the following Christmas and the rest as they say is history!