Ar'Pharazon wrote:

Thanks for getting this started. Hopefully, there's a lot of posts on this by Foolsgrave players.

We'll see! I'm sure interest will ebb and flow around convention activity, but down the road I'd like to find a way to run it online once a month as well. Fingers crossed!

Ar'Pharazon wrote:

Chainsaw wrote:

..down the road I'd like to find a way to run it online once a month as well. Fingers crossed!

In!

Done! At least one seat's yours.

I'm serious, though, my plan is to find some time this summer to figure out a way to run this online regularly and in a way where the mapping is engaging and not tedious. I don't want to be reading aloud feet dimensions because my experience *online* is that you lose people quickly after a few rooms in a compex map. No one except the folks mapping have any idea what's going on (tending to get bored or reckless or both) and the mapper and I spend way too much time on simple things (that would be cleared up easily in person). I will probably have to scan original maps (redrawn sans secret door indicators etc), upload them into a Roll20 type service, then use some sort of fog or something to obscure unseen areas. Once I figure out the best way to present it, I'll be sure to let everyone know. Like I said, I am excited about doing it.

Chainsaw, 

Let me know by text, PM or other I could be swayed to do the online thing in one of your Foolsgrave forays this summer!

Del

An idea, not taking anything away from the great graphics that Roll20 offers, is that you use your PC and use MS Paint for mapping during the sessions. You share your screen, map it out as the group moves through the dungeon and everyone can see it. 

Just a thought. 

Chainsaw wrote:

That's a great idea because it would seem to involve no prep/scanning. Does it offer a grid under-lay option? Can other people mark on the surface?

I did something similar with G+ Hangouts, which had a doodlepad tool. For simple dungeons, it worked well. For Foolsgrave, not so much. Plus, it froze up and lagged a lot.

The challenge will be getting a grid. MS Paint essentially allows you to draw over a picture, in this case the picture being a grid map. However, I have to imagine that making a grid wouldn't be hard, just time consuming.

Playing devils advocate, do you really want grids for a screen map being used in an internet game?
 

I've used Twiddla for years (in conjunction with Skype).  It's hardly perfect, but it does have a good grid and is extremely easy to use.  And it's free.

Thought I would post some Gary Con play summaries (sanitized) and pics from the development thread (that some people may be avoiding because it shows all the maps). I think these summaries are fair game as rumors heard around town, but used spoiler tags anyway. 

Weds evening

First delve had nine people, including ligedog (and his buds Ernesto and Jeff), Cloak n' Dagger, Ancalagon, Josh and three of Handy Haversack's crew (Kevin, Ross and Emily). We had a great time! Moved pretty quickly despite group size. We had some exploration (room with a 12 foot tall iron automaton; soot-filled room with an iron chest; room that looked like a safe campsite, but had a puzzling "Don't camp here" warning written on the wall; room with some wild boars eating zombies; room with a pentagram and some meat hooks hanging from ceiling; several empty rooms), some battles (black robed guy with skull amulet, jeweled snail, wild boars, zombies) and two deaths (Jeff cleaved in two; Ernesto incinerated by a trapped chest), treasure (gold, gems, skull amulet). Ross picked Ernesto's pocket as Ernesto was leaning over to open the chest, haha!

Second expedition took place Thurs night, with JoeMac (assassin), his two friends Dave (warlock) and Dave (ranger), and Josh (playing his same necromancer from Weds night). These guys really kicked ass! Smaller group than Weds, and very efficient (despite much liquor!). They explored maybe two dozen rooms, avoiding/fleeing several wandering monster encounters along the way (yellow moths, metal monitoring sphere, green slime, evil adventuring party, Thaumagorgan cultists, giant vampire bats), found two chests of gold and ultimately made their way into some overgrown tunnels, where they killed a shambling mound guarding some sort of strange, shimmering portal!

Third delve included ligedog, Ernesto, gizmo, Jeff, Josh, Del and francisca, with Ernesto again quickly setting the tone by barrelling through a door and into room with 24 big-handed zombies that pummeled him dead in one round (everyone else watched from the hall, laughed, shut the door and left!). They soon found three adjacent teleportation rooms and also happened upon a walking treasure chest (but it fled after too much damage and was too fast for even ligedog's barbarian). We ended in a high note, with Ernesto defacing a demonic idol and invoking a powerful demon that slaughtered him, gizmo and francisca almost immediately - everyone else fled back to the surface, happy for the bigger shares.

Fourth delve included Noah, Noah's Son, Kevin, Kevin's Son, grodog, Guy, Scott and Tom, all new to the dungeon. Lots of carnage (Guy 1 cut in half; Guy 2 and Tom 1 obliterated by a green ray; grodog's skeletal servants Guy 1 and Jeff 1 incinerated) and a couple fun rooms (they found the teleportation rooms; a room with a multi-faced floating object asking them "GUILTY or INNOCENT?"). They also found gold in two chests (killed some dark blue giant beetles guarding one), destroyed a walking treasure chest and found two potion bottles (one filled with white mist, the other heart-shaped with red liquid). Again, finished on a high note, with Kevin topside in the Laughing Skull tavern, opening the mist-filled bottle - a ghost emerged and the patrons all fled in terror!

Ran Foolsgrave twice at NTRPG Con (June 2017), once Thursday afternoon (June 1) and once Saturday night (June 3). capitalbill mapped both times, no idea of he plans on sharing his maps. He can if he wants, but he may also be a greedy bastard and keep them for himself, haha.

The Thursday afternoon Foolsgrave crew consisted of:
- capitalbill (K&KA member)
- tetramorph (K&KA member)
- Barnett1967 (Hyperborea member)
- wjaehnig (Acaeum member)
- Bracton (Acaeum member)
- stratochamp (Acaeum member)
- Dave
- Cody

This party survived the opening challenge after a few hilarious and hair-raising moments that of course included grappling, a lasso, acrobatics and other assorted silliness. From there, they wandered for a bit before tangling with the flying caterpillars, finding some treasure, fleeing from a giant green slime (more than they could handle!) and eventually finding a route west from the central map. In this area they discovered a room of magical pedestals that blessed wjaehnig with +1 to strength, but turned stratochamp into a freakish abomination with a vulture wing, a withered black stump, a backward bending goat leg and an overlong tentacle leg. He felt like giving up (Bracton swears he even saw tears), but soon found a purpose when they ran into a hungry pack of carnivorous apes who demanded the party send over its weakest to be eaten. Naturally they responded "Send over your strongest for a winner take all fight!" which prompted a big four-armed albino ape to step into the torch light. Fearing immiment disaster, Stratochamp's abomination lit on a sure-fire plan, stating "Light me on fire, then I will run in and grapple him!" Somehow, this worked! He ran in and grappled succesfully - then the rest threw honor to the side and attacked! Miraculously, they won the fight! A captured ape-men led them to the lair treasure and then they hauled ass out of there. Good times!

"Steve" wrote:

CHAINSAW'S FOOLSGRAVE, Saturday Evening
========
Welleran
Flambeaux
capitalbill
Steve
Victoria (thief died, cleric died, not a member)
Patrick (died twice, once by a deathstar, not a member)
Rosser (balrog62's friend)
austinjimm
balrog62 (necromancer died, nearly decapitated by flying bugs)

Saturday evening I bummed a game of Chainsaw's Foolsgrave. I was thinking about begging Grodog a place at his table, but that late into the con, I just didn't have the brain power to run a high level PC. A 1st level meatshield was more my style, so I rolled up Dice Dougal, a weasel of a 1st level fighter who would have been a used car salesman in another era. Race: Man, AL: Depends...

Since this is an ongoing dungeon, I won't go into too much detail. Needless to say, life is cheap in Foolsgrave. We had 5 or 6 deaths in about 5 hours, depending on how you count death. We had a great deal of fun, and we were the first group to find level 2.

Some of the funnier moments came with Jimm's magician getting stuck on the top of a tower. (After what Jimm pulled in my To Hades and Back game, he had it coming!) I think he is called Borlack the Black, or something like that.

Upon getting stuck, Jimm and Chainsaw realized there had been a mistake made when rolling up his PC, and that he should have begun with a few spell scrolls. The easy thing would have been for Jimm to choose a scroll of Levitation, but kudos for him for taking Knock instead. Obviously this isn't the last we've heard from Chainsaw and Jimm about Borlack(?).

The other thing that was humorous was that all, or almost all of the fatalities were from players who didn't know Chainsaw. Dude is a stone cold killer DM. I don't think they understood that "Hey, this looks interesting" in a Chainsaw dungeon equals "Hey, this will kill us in an interesting way."

Dice Dougal made it out with enough XP to level, but not quite enough gold to level (I rolled poorly on starting gold).

Here are Dice Dougal's rules for surviving Chainsaw's Foolsgrave dungeon:

#1. The ideal party will have 25% to 50% players who aren't familiar with Chainsaw, which means they will almost certainly die. This way you get a full group's worth of loot, but only have to split it among half a group.

#2. If you think something looks interesting, see the name of the dungeon.

#3. The 5 minute rule. If someone isn't seen or heard from for 5 minutes, they are presumed dead and your group should move on. There will be no rescue missions in Foolsgrave.

#4. Be humble. Go for the low-hanging fruit/easy treasures only. If you must go after some tantalizing treasure, make the other guy go first so you can loot the treasure over their freshly charred corpse.

#5. Don't believe anything that was written on the walls. I, er, they are only trying to get you killed (or stuck on top of a tower).

Hilarious write-up by Steve! I love his rules for survival, haha! Overall, his crew did pretty well. Using capitalbill's knowledge from the Thursday afternoon session, they navigated past the opening challenge, then soon discovered the Camp Site room. From there, while austinjimm looked for treasure on the tower roof, the crew fended off an attack by lotus-chewing pict berserkers (compliments of Philotomy!). Eventually abandoning austinjimm, they headed off the central map, tangling with some giant flying caterpillars (with bristles covered in paralyzing goo), pillaging two spider's nests (very dangerous at level one considering their deadly poison!) and overcoming a metal monitoring sphere of doom (well, most of them). They left with some decent treasure and the location of a way to Level 2 (first ones to find a way down!). Pretty succesful I say, even allowing for the half-a-dozen fatalities (poor Patrick and Victoria had no idea what hell they had stepped into!). We will see what happens with Borlack the Black! I suspect we have not heard the last of him by any stretch.

Let me put it this way: I'm glad I only had to deal with miniature death stars twice, and not all 4 damn times I played AS&SH @GHC.