Dyson's Delve - Expedition #1

Ran some OD&D-inspired FKR dungeon crawl tonight with three players, it was a blast. I kept things moving quickly and the PCs were decisive, which led them to explore a considerable amount (three levels, and they even "cleared" the second one) of dungeon space all the while keeping track of time, light and distances accurately. In three hours!

Rules Stuff - I keep telling y'all, just make up the game when you need it:

Roll 3d6 in order for STR, INT, WIS, CON, DEX, CHA. Only record adjectives for noteworthy stats.
Pick a class (fighter, magic-user, cleric, thief, elf, dwarf, hobbit, other).

I kept weapon/armour restrictions as well as any descriptive stuff like dwarven stonesense abilities or known languages. You get 4 HP, Heavy Metal Armour or a Shield can reduce damage taken by 1. If you're using both that's a DR of 1 and a bonus HP. Leather armour or a helmet grant extra HP each. Unarmed/improvised does 1 hit, melee weapons do 2 hits, two-handers and bows do 3 hits, a crossbow or longbow do 4 hits. DR 2 could be magical super-armour or a dragon's scales. PCs get 4 HP.
After the game we implemented the following rule for advancement: you can spend your treasure (gold!) to acquire customized cool things (tm). The Necromancer will research a new spell for 1,000gp.

For magic, I went with Wonders & Wickedness + Marvels & Mallisons, assuming the necromancer can cast as if he were third level (he starts with three spells and can cast each one per adventure. He got Death Ray, Soul Transfer and Transmigration).

Combat rounds have simultaneous initiative unless it makes sense to give initiative to someone situationally, which happened a lot, organically. There are no to hit or damage rolls, although we did use saves for "gambles" like the Dwarf trying to bum-rush a zombie and hack another at the same time. Made a lot of use of ad hoc saving throws, calling a target number for something to happen or to avoid something bad, and rolling 2d6 or having a player roll. With that said, onwards to the game.

Characters

That's by the end of the session, I think. I have since removed mentions of HP altogether. I'm still using the same system but it's more in the background. They all know each others and are being mercenaries/murderhobos together, and are looking for a secret entrance to the Great Underground Empire, which is rumored to be somewhere down below the Caves of Doom, somewhere on level 11.

What Happened

The entrance was at the bottom of a cliff, a cave entrance shaped like a large predatory maw, like that of a crocodile or gator. I set the scene, the players described their characters, and we established that the boundary between player and character would be so thin this game that their PCs could actually respond directly to the narrator (me) if they so desired.

On level 1, Goblinus Peticus picked up a goblin skull and found mice and some coins stashed in it. Listening to noises, the party went for the quietest path (north and south had two varieties of squeaking and clicking noises), then whichever was large enough for the STALWART dwarf. Down the stairs they went.

On level 2, they found some mangled rat corpses. A saving throw (2d6=5+, 10) allowed the Necromancer to guess that a ghoul's claws had done that. I proceeded to read the description of the ghoul to the newbie players. They decided it'd be wise not to mess with it later on.

Going NW, they saw an alcove with a parchment-skinned corpse in a pharaoh-like posture, wearing fine clothings and jewelry. Obviously a ghoul laying in ambush. The goblin went to tear off the corpse's arm and got surprised by the monster. It jumped and started choking Peticus with razor-sharp claws. Cue cracking neckbone noise (in retrospect, that move was really bad and dangerous, the Ghoul should have just killed Peticus). The dwarf kept it in a corner while the others stabbed and shot it to death.

Next, they checked the SW room - noticing many pairs of red eyes in the dark, they decided to throw a torch inside, which caused the many giant rats inside to grow angry and scared, and swarm towards them. The stalwart dwarf stood his ground while the others took care verming going past him. McDwarf got dealt 5 out of 7 hits this fight, and decided to stay in the back most of the time after this. Again, in retrospect, I got tricked into a gamist mindset here and let the Hits mechanics be prescriptive rather than descriptive. One giant rat is dog-sized, I don't think it should have been this easy and even fighting them might have been a deadly idea considering the size and numbers.

Back to the NW, they noticed the stairs and searched a room full of bones (victims of the ghoul) to no avail. They went downstairs.

[I'm not home so I don't have the third level map at hand]

The dwarf quickly noticed that the area looked unsafe, and after some debating, the party decided to hit the walls with a hammer until the "trap" triggered: packed stones and a weak ceiling caused some debris to fall harmlessly in a passage going north. Peticus scouted ahead, followed closely by McDwarf the Troll Slayer. Zombies! Probably stuck inside the rock for decades or more, the mossy corpses shambled forward...only to get jumped by the Dorf. Third mistake on my end - zombies are slow, which is fine; but to be threatening here they should have been maybe a dozen of them instead of 4-5, cause they weren't a real threat and got dispatched quickly. It'd be easy to say that's caused by the lack of RNG (to hit, damage), but in practice it really just means I should run combat better, thinking more about the tactical possibilities even for brainless monsters. They could have been packed together and numerous, or try to isolate one by ganging up.

After that fight, they found a cleaner set of stairs going down and another passage to the east. They went further down, explored some crypts and got chased by a pack of ghouls (they ran this time). They slammed a door on them and prepared molotov cocktails using the lantern oil (yes, lantern oil is flaming oil in my D&D world). This sent the monsters running away yelping in fear, and the group went back up and out without anymore trouble.

Changes for Next Session

I'm still going to use Hits ala APIE but I don't want them to be prescriptive in my mind, so I'm removing the numbers from the character sheets and will do things in a more loose, ad-hoc fashion. Should help thinking more about the fiction. Eventually I should feel comfortable getting rid of Hits entirely...