Wow! Thanks for doing this!

I suspect it's larger because it's in BMP format instead of PNG like the previous one. I converted the download to PNG in GIMP (default PNG export settings) and it's 56MB.

Well, if one side is setting up an ambush then they are already aware of the other party, so there would be no chance for that party to surprise the ambushers.

Jimm.Iblis wrote:

By the way - I've had to play the captcha game on every post I've made today. When will it end!?

Yeah, it's hell, but it eventually goes away. Somewhere around 75-100 posts or so.
 

francisca wrote:

foxroe wrote:

Forgive my ignorance, but is "Beasts & Cannibals" just the Kickstarter title for the two adventure modules, or will it be a separate product?

I think "Breasts and Cannabis" was deemed too worrying to Concerned Parents (TM), so he went with Beasts and Cannibals.
 

You know, funny you should say that, because when I first saw "Beasts & Cannibals" my polluted mind did in fact read "Breasts and Cannabis", and I thought "Feck yeah! Now that's Old School! I'm in!"
 

Blackadder23 wrote:

Gary ran D&D for a fair while before the rules were published - certainly before 1e was published - and it's a good bet that he encountered all of these tactics. That's why the early iterations of the game included rules that discourage pretty much all of them. Wandering monsters impose a cost (potentially a lethal one) for dawdling in the dungeon. Monthly expenses (coupled with training costs for level gains) impose a financial cost for too much non-adventuring downtime. Retaining hirelings is supposed to be a process, not simply a matter of paying gold. Most noncombatant hirelings are intended to refuse to enter dungeons at any price. Dungeons are supposed to be restocked, providing lethal surprises for laborers idiotic enough to enter one. If PCs retain a lot of hirelings (especially ones who don't survive) the referee is meant to increase prices with a "supply and demand" justification. The same goes for equipment prices, and the list goes on.

One by one most of these pieces were yanked out, especially in later editions of D&D. Some of the changes were made by people who honestly believed they understood D&D better than Gary. Others were made mostly to pander to players*. The sum total of the changes was to drive the bad behavior you describe. People eventually recognized the problem, but the solution many choose is not to restore the old mechanisms that were actually created to address these issues. Rather, it's to slap a band-aid on the problem by tinkering at the margins. That just doesn't strike me as the most efficient solution.

* - It's worth noting that the vast majority of 1e products were published for DM's. That doesn't appear to be the case for later editions.

QFT (and only because there is no "like" option)
 

Oddly specific player questions about the log palisade can be a hook as well:
"We useta get dem trunks from da Ebon Mere up north, but sometin up dare got piss-drunk mad atus, so we stopped. Day waggon dem in from da east now. Best ya stay away from dat Ebon Mere place..."

You guys are killing me. 

Wait... is that the fabled Crown of Tlakk-Nakka... O.O

Handy Haversack wrote:

I think the most effective strategy is to have someone tell the characters that the logs are from trees that asked too many damn questions. Helps if you have a white cat to stroke while you say it.

That deserves a quote just so I can ROTF and LMAO.
 

I've been toying with using Rappan Athuk as a nice Hyperborean mini-campaign.

Make it a cult stronghold that's been secretly growing in power for decades that is threatening Swampgate and/or Khromarium. Instead of Orcus as the big-bady, just make it an upstart, named Type IV or Type VI daemon. Substitute Picts, Ixians, Orcs, and Ape-men for humanoids on the fly (wouldn't even change the stats since I'd use the S&W version). Hours and hours of campaigning prep - done.

I like the The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth idea above as well; I always thought it would make for a great Iggwilv-themed megadungeon kick-off. Consider that stolen.

The Caverns of Thracia and I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City would work well in Hyperborea too.
 

The speaking, gold-hoarding, spell-casting dragon trope is definitely a "high fantasy" element. I picture dragons in a AS&SH setting as being a wingless, subterranean species (sans magic and speech). There are already wyverns  in the game if you're looking for winged lizards...