[Session Report] A recap of where the party has traveled so far

 

Outdoor Survival Game Board

    In just under 2 months of in-game time, the party has explored several locations, met quite a few NPCs, and had a few encounters with mythical beasts.

Key

A: Dragonwrath

B: Tower of Mezhag the Imposing (now currently controlled by Gujek the Cruel and his orcs)

C: The Halls of Ghuldesh

D: Fenhor the Fearless' Stronghold

E: Dantar of the Dread Wilds' bandit hideout

[Homebrew] Gathering Information

A prime location for gathering rumors

    The main way that player characters learn about the various things going on in the local area is by "purchasing" rumors.  Now, at first it might seem silly to spend money on characters talking to NPCs but the way I explain it is this: the gold spent represents buying drinks, shopping at the market, bribing locals, etc so instead of playing through each individual encounter I just speed it up by having them purchase the rumors.  

    Originally, I used rumor tables and players would roll to see how many and which rumors they would learn about but I have recently changed my method.  Instead of creating tables of rumors, I create some rumors that everyone will know that gives each person at least some idea of what is going on lately.  Then, I create 4-5 rumors that explore those initial "free" rumors a little bit more in depth, print them out, cut them into strips, and place them in a bag for players to blindly take.  I also make sure to print multiples of the same rumor so there is a chance that a character could hear the same rumor several times.  When a player buys a rumor they can then take a rumor from the bag.  For example, one of the "free" rumors I gave to my players the other day was that "a strange group of men, wearing black robes, came into town a few days ago."  I then made 5 other rumors that tied into that first one, including a rumor about a local acolyte who was allegedly seen talking to the group of strangers.  Another method for gaining rumors is through hiring harlots, although this is not guaranteed.  Each harlot has a 2 in 6 chance of knowing a few rumors.  Player characters are also able to add their charisma bonus (or penalty) to their rumor rolls.

My rules for rumors

[Session Report 5 - 7/9/24] The Bandit Cave of Dantar of the Dread Wilds

Dantar of the Dread Wilds being escorted back to Dragonwrath

    The session began on the 16th of First Seed with the party recovering in town, listening to rumors, and talking to NPCs throughout Dragonwrath.  They eventually left town on the 21st in search of druidic ruins, known as the Halls of Ghuldesh, that were just north of the stronghold.  Once there, they took note of the ring of standing stones, long worn down over the centuries, and explored the underground ruins.  Inside, they saw channels within the dungeon walls and decided to hold their flame to it, believing it to be oil.  Quickly, the room became bright and fire was seen tracing the walls.  This caused the eyes of the 3 statues in the room to glow blue and a secret door opened up leading to the southern part of the ruins.  They explored the area a bit more and found some treasure and even encountered the rumored druid who was said to still maintain the location.  The druid, Kalithog the Learned, explained that due to his cowardice in the past he was obligated to act as a guardian of the dungeons.  After some discussion, the party decided to leave the druid be and traveled back to town.

A random woodland encounter

    After staying at the Wayfarer's Inn, the party went out into the wilderness again, this time with the hopes of finding a bandit lair since they had heard local merchants complaining about their caravan being robbed along Bandit's Pass within Outlaw Forest.  They traveled to Outlaw Forest and on the 25th, they saw a unicorn but it quickly galloped away after being startled by the party.  They continued on in the forest and came upon a stone tower.  A lord, riding a horse, came out to greet the party and introduced himself as Lord Fenhor the Fearless.  He informed the party about the gang of bandits that recently attacked a caravan before challenging the party to a joust.  Kratos II accepted and after 3 tilts, it was declared a draw and Lord Fenhor made sure to recognize Kratos for his bravery in accepting the challenge.

    Our heroes, still determined to find the bandits, made their way to Bandit Pass, however, after a day of traveling they realized they were nearly out of food.  They only had 1 day of rations per party member and the fear of starvation soon set in.  They decided to split up.  One group would stay put and forage while the second group would travel back to Lord Fenhor's stronghold in the hopes that he would be so generous as to gift them enough food to travel back to civilization.  Unfortunately the foragers were unsuccessful but the second group was able to make a deal with Fenhor.  In exchange for a week's worth of rations, the party was oathbound to him, should he ever need to call upon them.  Thankful for his hospitality, they said their farewells and quickly made their way to meet up with their other party members.  Once they were all together, they headed back to Dragonwrath.

    On the 4th of Rainfall, the party arrived at the gates of Dragonwrath and felt the comfort of strong walls and a warm hearth once again.  Now weakened from a day without food, some of the party members had to rest for a week.  During this time, the other party members began to familiarize themselves with the various points of interest around town.  They decided to check out the tailor and asked him if he had made any black robes lately, which was a reference to a rumor they had heard earlier about a group of strange men in black robes coming to town.  The tailor assured them he had not made any robes.  The adventurers then asked to commission some black robes so that they might get to the bottom of this mystery.  He agreed and on the 9th the party received new, black robes.

    A few days passed and the recovering party members were now completely healed.  Not wanting to waste any time, they immediately went back into the wilderness (the hunger pangs now seemingly a faint memory) to explore the bandit lair.  While walking through Outlaw Forest, the party saw a blue dragon flying overhead.  Not wanting to attract its attention , the party continued their journey to the bandit cave.  Eventually, they saw 3 men clad in leather and armed with short swords and bows in front of a cave entrance.  They decided to wait for nightfall so that they could surprise the men and hopefully take them quietly.

    It worked!  The party got the drop on them and quickly killed 2 of the 3 bandit guards and seriously wounded the last one.  Overcome with pain and not wanting to take his chances fleeing, Randall the Bandit surrendered.  The party threatened him with magic (which they did not have) in order to interrogate him.  He told them everything he knew, even drawing a map of the caves and detailing where Dantar of the Dread Wilds' personal chambers were.  After much discussion, the party thought it best to let Randall go into the caves in order for him to sound the alarm and lead some of the bandits away from the caves.  Randall was able to lead 5 of the 13 bandits out of the caves on a wild goose chase while the party snuck in like special forces operators.  They quickly located Dantar and in a moment, caused him and his 4 body guards to drop like rocks with the use of an effective Sleep spell.  They beheaded the bandits (there was a bounty of 5 gp per bandit head) but decided that Lord Branif Greencloak of Dragonwrath might prefer it if Dantar was delivered to him alive.  The party then moved on into the common area and encountered 3 bandits who were cut down almost as quickly.  

    Now that the caves were clear, the party took note of where the caravan goods were and looted Dantar's personal chest.  Some time passed and the 5 bandits (plus Randall) arrived back at the caves.  The party quickly hid by a wall next to a passage, hoping to surprise anyone coming that way.  They heard footsteps and voices getting louder and suddenly jumped out in front of the bandits.  The bandits were caught by surprise and the party attacked.  After a brief melee, Amar the veteran was sadly cut down but the party was victorious, having killed all of the remaining bandits (except for Randall).  The party loaded up as much as they could carry and marched back to Dragonwrath with Dantar bound with rope.

    When they finally reached the gates of Dragonwrath on the 19th of Rainfall, they were greeted by a guard who asked them their business with the prisoner.  They explained who he was and the guard quickly let them in while informing another guard to get Lord Greencloak.  Lord Greencloak came down from his castle riding a horse, along with his retinue, and greeted the party.  He thanked them for their service, rewarded them, and then had Dantar of the Dread Wilds publicly executed.  Then Lord Greencloak ordered some of his men to collect the caravan goods to return to the merchants and traders.  The party was celebrated as heroes and Hal the tavern master gave a round of drinks to everyone in honor of their efforts.

[Session Report 4 - 7/7/24] The Tower of Mezhag the Imposing/The Catacombs Part 2

    The party approached the gates of Dragonwrath and were greeted by a guard.  He called out to them, asking what business they have in Dragonwrath.  Our adventurers answered by saying they had just returned from a trek into the wilderness and have returned to Dragonwrath so that they might rest and resupply.  The guard, making first to collect the entry taxes from the demi humans, ordered his men to raise the gate and allowed the party to enter into the stronghold.  Now inside the stronghold, they bought some rations, had a jeweler appraise their recently acquired gem, and then went inside the Wayfarer's Inn to get some rest.

A random wilderness encounter

    After resting for a few days, the party decided to journey into the wilderness yet again and left Dragonwrath on the 11th of First Seed.  They followed the river that led to the Outlaw forest.  As they walked through the forest, they entered a clearing and were able to see the sky up above and to the party's surprise, they witnessed a dragon flying overhead.  Shortly after, the party was able to reach the Tower of Mezhag the Imposing, which was now under the control of Gujek the Cruel.  The party knocked on the double door and were greeted by an orc guard that recognized them and took them to speak to Gujek.  Gujek asked them if they were here to clear the catacombs and the party explained their plan.  They wanted to map out the catacombs and loot it if possible.  Gujek warned them of the danger and despite the party's request, he wouldn't offer any of his orcs to aid them in their quest.  He did say that he wouldn't demand any treasure they found since the party was essentially doing him a favor which he deemed as more than enough payment.  At the end of their conversation, Gujek explained that this would be the last time he would open his doors for the party and would prefer to be left alone once they finish their quest.  The party accepted his terms.

    The orcs guided the party into the room that led down into the catacombs.  The party descended down the spiral stair case and were immediately greeted by a woman's blood curdling scream that echoed throughout the cave.  The air was heavy and cold and the clerics could sense a feeling of misery about the place.  

    Not shying away from danger, the party explored the damp tomb.  As they waved their torch around to get a better look of the area they noticed that the walls were full of skulls and bones piled on top of each other.  The adventurers headed west down a short passageway and entered another chamber.  This one had 4 sarcophagi placed into recesses in the walls.  Not wanting to overstay their welcome, the party went southward down another corridor.  It turned eastward and they came into a room with a stone shrine, dedicated to some forgotten deity or hero.  The shrine had about 1,000 gold pieces littered on top of it.  The party could tell something was off and decided to poke around the room checking for traps.  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  After some discussion, greed got the better of our heroes and they decided to stuff their bags with the coins.  Immediately upon disturbing the treasure, the party could hear horrible groans and the sound of stone cracking and breaking.  They knew that whatever was in those sarcophagi was headed their way.

    Preparing themselves for combat, they got into a defensive position.  Their back was to the wall and they were determined to stand their ground.  Soon after, a group of 4 rotting corpses marched down the hallway and headed towards the party.  They gnashed their teeth and displayed their claws.  The fight began with Peter striking first.  He dealt 2 points of damage but the ghoul was unshaken.  Amar and Verbaith (Vergaith's brother) missed their attacks.  The ghouls began to bite and claw at the party members and Verbaith was slain, Amar fell paralyzed shortly after.  Our heroes were shocked, asking  "What on Y'nthros' green Urth could these foul creatures be?!"

    Clementine grabbed her cross, the holy symbol of the Y'nthronites, and displayed it to the rotting monsters.  She called out to her god but he did not answer.  Fear was setting in and the party asked themselves if Y'nthros had forsaken them.  One of the ghouls clawed at Sir Peter but proved ineffective.  Sir Peter steadied himself, shrugging off the paralysis inducing dread that was characteristic of ghouls.  He then raised his sword and with a valiant swing was able to kill one of the undead monsters.

    Gotas, knowing he would be immune to the paralysis, pushed himself through the ranks and went on the offensive.  Cherri the halfling was targeted next and despite her small stature proved resilient against the paralyzing effect.  Peter attacked again dealing 4 points of damage to another ghoul, killing it.  The party started to see glimpse of hope.

    Suddenly their hope was gone, Cherri had been slain.  This clearly shook Peter as the next time he was attacked, he failed to save against the paralysis and became catatonic.  Bonnie was next to fall, his dying moments were that of his new orc friend, Grujek, whom he hoped to meet again in another life.  Still determined to make it out of this god forsaken tomb, the dwarf swung his war hammer wildly and killed a 3rd ghoul causing the last one to flee farther into the catacombs.

    The party caught their breath and collected their friends.  They made their way out of the catacombs and not a moment too soon for they had heard the moans and groans of more undead as they ascended the stair case.  Gujek saw the state the party was in and wanted to know what had happened.  They explained that they lost some of their members, including Bonnie.  Gujek, in an act of compassion, gave his +1 sword to the party as a farewell gift and to honor the party for what they had done for him.  After thanking the orcs and waiting for the paralyzed party members to recover, they made their way home.  It took 2 days but they made it back to the safety of Dragonwrath and even though they were glad to be back, their spirits were dampened due to the loss of their companions.

[Session Report 3 - 7/6/24 ]The Tower of Mezhag the Imposing

The Tower of Mezhag the Imposing

    My cousin was visiting for the weekend so we decided to play some D&D and my sister had agreed to join in as well for the adventure.  This session would be different though, I broke out my Outdoor Survival game board and told my players that we'd be doing a hex crawl.  First, they would gather rumors about an adventure site then they'd have to go out into the perilous wilderness in search of adventure where they would then be able to delve the dungeon and finally they'd have to make the journey back home.  This would be a challenge for them since 1. they had never done a hex crawl before (and neither had I) and 2. their party consisted entirely of 1st level characters.  With that said, I'll get into the details of the session now.

    The adventure started like many others, with a party of adventurers meeting in a tavern where they could listen to the town gossip and find out where they might be able to score some treasure.  The tavern was called the Bottomless Tankard and had a good reputation amongst the people of Dragonwrath, a human stronghold which dominated the Gryphon Vale.  The adventurers learned about a mysterious tower that glowed blue in the night, which was thought to be the result of a precious gem known as The Moon's Tear.

    The party consisted of 10 members - Sir Peter III (male fighter), Hag (female magic-user), Ermer'er (male dwarf), Vergaith (female cleric), Gotas the Uncanny (male elf), Amar (male fighter), Bonnie (male magic-user), Clementine (female cleric), Juni (male thief), and last but not least, Cherri (female halfling).  So, with only a few coins to their names, the party left the safety of civilization and marched into the wilds.  After 3 days of traveling on foot over grasslands and into the forest, the party reached their destination.  They decided to scope the area out before getting too close and noticed that there were 4 orc sentries standing watch atop The Tower of Mezhag the Imposing.  The halfling, Cherri, decided to get a bit closer to the tower and used her sling to launch a stone and distract a guard.  It worked, which gave the rest of the party time to move up to the entrance.

Dragonwrath (left) and adventuring party (right)

    The entrance of the tower was an iron reinforced wooden double door.  Hastily, the party entered.  Upon entering the structure, they found themselves in a 10' wide by 30' long corridor that ended with another set of doors, similar to the entrance.  This was an airlock.  They made their way down the corridor when suddenly the ground beneath them started to break.  Peter lunged forward, narrowly escaping the nasty fall into the now exposed pit trap.  Amar and Vergaith were not as lucky.  The two fell, taking 2 and 4 points of damage, respectively.  The party then chose to drop into the pit and climb out the other way, with Peter using his rope to help his fellow adventurers get out of the 10' deep pit.

    Not deterred by this minor setback, the party pressed onward.  They reached the door and Gotas, Juni, and Cherri all listened at the door.  Confident that they heard nothing, they decided to open the double door.  The party was now in another hallway, this time with a few different directions to choose from.  They chose to listen to the door to the east but didn't hear anything.  They had been in the tower for an hour already, which prompted them to take a needed rest.

    They moved on into the room and as they were searching, they heard the distant sounds of snorts and heavy footsteps.  Immediately the party began to suspect that orcs had taken up residence in this tower.  They were on edge.  The elf, thief, and halfling decided to listen at the northern door and after deciding the coast was clear, took another rest before pressing on.  After a few attempts, Bonnie was able to open the door which led them into another passageway.  They came to a door and again, listened.  This time they could hear soft groans and the metallic clanking of heavy chains coming from somewhere nearby.  "Those sounds must come from the victims that were trapped here!" thought the adventurers.  

    The party opened the door, looked around, and saw a prison cell.  A weak voice called out asking who was there.  The party looked into the cell and saw a naked man, cowering and covered in bruises, chained to the wall.  His neck had a metal collar around it and the chain barely had enough length to allow him to sit.  The party asked him for his name and how he wound up in this predicament.  The man, now identifying himself as Hargin of the Forgotten City, explained how he too had heard the rumors of a great and valuable gem known as the Moon's Tear and had tried to scale the tower in hopes of sneaking in stealthily.  He, unfortunately, was caught by the 4 guards who knocked him out and locked him in the prison cell.

    Juni took out his thieves' tools and tried to pick the lock on the barred door but the lock was clearly to complex for his skill level.  He decided to slide the tools to Hargin, hoping that he might be able to pick his own lock as well as the door's.  Hargin was successful in removing the collar around his neck but wasn't able to pick the lock on the door.  Promising to return to Hargin, they tossed him a dagger and pressed on in the hopes of finding a key to free their newfound friend.

    The party listened at the door to the east and entered the room.  After searching it, they came to the conclusion it was empty and decided to keep exploring.  After walking though a winding hallway, the party came across two doors.  They listened at both and heard voices in each.  The westernmost room had the least amount of voices as well as the sounds of a fire and bubbling liquid.  They thought that this room must be some kind of kitchen and figured they would take their chances with the cooks rather than the larger sounding group in the eastern room.  Unable to kick the door down, the party lost their element of surprise and were greeted by 3 angry orcs.  

    "There's intruders!  Let's get 'em lads!" the orcs yelled.  Bonnie, being fluent in orcish, desperately called out to them.  "We don't mean any harm!"  The orcs, now confused that a human knew their language, paused, which gave time for Bonnie to speak more.  After coming up with a lie about how she was raised by orcs and was only coming to the tower to rescue prisoners the orcs laughed at him.  The orcs didn't believe him and besides, they had orders from their master to enslave as many beings as they could.  A fight broke out and one orc was slain by Amar in a single blow with his sword.  The other two quickly dropped unconscious as Bonnie cast his sleep spell.

    Just as the orcs fell, the orcs from the other room came pouring out into the hallway.  There were 6 in total.  They decided to rush the party, now that the intruders were backed into a wall.  Quickly, Bonnie called out in orcish.  This, combined with the orcs seeing their companions fall in a single round of combat, made the orcs a bit more hesitant than usual.  One orc pushed himself into the front of the group, announcing himself as Gujek the Cruel.  He explained that he had direct orders from the master and intended on capturing the party.  Bonnie, hoping to avoid bloodshed, pressured the burly orc into answering why he would serve anyone, least of all a human.  After some discussion about power dynamics and hierarchies, Amar decided that he would challenge their leader.  Grujek decided to honor the request out of a cultural and racial obligation of respecting strength.

Mezhag the Imposing casting Charm person

    Grujek walked passed the party, pressed some stones into the wall which exposed a secret door, and led everyone upstairs to see Mezhag the Imposing.  Mezhag, sitting on his raised throne, called out to the party members and asked who among them thinks that they are so powerful that they could best him in a duel.  Amar stepped forward and introduced himself.  Mezhag, knowing his power was almost entirely dependent on his orc followers, raised his hands and began to speak softly to Amar.  "Why, oh dearest Amar, would you want to fight your beloved friend, Mezhag the Conjurer?"  The combination of the magic-user's words and subtle hand gestures were enough to put a charm on Amar, making him think the evil magic-user was his best friend!

    Thinking quickly, Gotas cast detect magic and both Amar and Gujek began to emit a glowing, magical aura.  Clearly Mezhag had enchanted Amar and Gujek into obeying him.  The orcs, now outraged that their proud tribe was tricked into serving a lowly magician decided to side with the party in an effort to free themselves of their magical chains.  Mezhag then cast phantasmal force and conjured up a minotaur.  He ordered the minotaur and orcs to apprehend the adventurers but the orcs didn't listen.  Instead, they surrounded the minotaur and chose to fight their master's creation.

    Mezhag, knowing this could be the end, ran for his personal chest that was behind a curtain to get his scroll while the groups were busy fighting the minotaur.  Amar and Gujek both followed their "best friend" in an effort to protect him.  After a few rounds of combat, Ermer'er successfully hit the minotaur causing it to dissipate.

    The magic-user, in a last ditch effort to regain control over his minions, decided to strike one down hoping to instill some fear into them.  An orc was hit by a magic missile but shrugged it off, taking 4 damage in the process.  Hag then cast sleep on the evil conjurer and his charmed companions.  After they fell to the ground, the party beheaded Mezhag which broke the spell that was cast upon Amar and Gujek.

    Somewhat ashamed but grateful, the proud orc Gujek thanked the party for helping free him of his curse.  After some negotiation, the two groups decided that they would split whatever loot that belonged to Mezhag.  The party searched the room and Mezhag's corpse.  They found a scroll (magic missile) as well as a decent chunk of coin located in a trapped chest, which Gujek preemptively broke to avoid any casualties.  The groups split the treasure evenly and then went to free Hargin who was quite shocked to see the orcs and adventurers working together.  They also returned his equipment and because he was so thankful for being rescued, he gave the party his +1 dagger.

    The group headed back upstairs and asked the orcs if they knew of any other spots to search within the tower.  They mentioned 3 locations which they never were allowed to go.  The underground catacombs which had proven to be too dangerous for the orcs and 2 other rooms that Mezhag the Imposing had considered to be his private chambers.  The party decided to search those 2 rooms first before checking out the catacombs.  The first room they checked out was had a door of iron bars but nobody could see into the room because a large curtain blocked their vision.  A party member extended their 10' pole into the room and tapped the curtain.  Suddenly, a nearly invisible giant spider dropped down and broke the pole.  The thief threw some oil, hoping to hit the spider so that they might light it on fire, but missed.  They decided to throw their torch in anyway and the curtains began to burn.  The spider quickly hid away into the eastern corner of the room to break line of sight with the party.

    Foolishly, the cleric Vergaith, stepped into the room hoping to quickly kill the spider and possibly find some hidden treasure.  They had not yet found the Moon's Tear.  Unsurprisingly, the giant spider leapt towards the holy woman and quickly killed her.  The rest of the party, not wanting to meet a similar fate, chose to explore the second room.  It was a library with several book cases.  Due to accurate mapping, the party members noticed that the room's width would mean that a hidden room could lie between the library and hallway.  They started pulling and moving the various books around until one finally triggered a secret door to open.  Inside the hidden room was a chest which had a locked book.  It was quite ornate and seemed expensive, most likely Mezhag's spellbook.  In addition to that, the party had also found the famed gem that the locals had told them about.  It was as beautiful as they had claimed.  It's shape was tear-like and its color was a deep blue.  They also found some coin which they gave to the orcs, deciding that the gem and spell were their half of the loot.

    Not wanting to press their luck with adventuring in the catacombs after having lost a cleric, the party parted ways with the orcs and headed back into the wilderness.  Hargin tagged along since he was incredibly wounded and preferred to get back to Dragonwrath in one piece, if at all possible.  The party set out into the wilds but quickly got lost.  They found themselves at a river and chose to follow it down a ways.  After 8 days of travel they were able to make it back to civilization.  They restocked on rations and headed to the Wayfarer's Inn to get some much needed rest.

[Lore] The Gryphon Vale (Part 2)

Outdoor Survival's reaction to my fickleness.

Something I struggle with a lot is sticking to something that I've made.  Usually, my process of creating something goes like this: I create something I like > I try to improve it > I get dissatisfied > I create something new.  It's frustrating to me because I end up never being okay with the stuff that I make since I never leave it alone.  I continue changing it and modifying it in an attempt to fine tune it and make it better but it inevitably leaves me feeling like I'll never make something I am completely happy with.

My goal is to try and get over this problem so that I can make a setting (among other things) that I truly enjoy and am content with.  First, I'm trying to get myself to internalize the idea that imperfect, but complete, things are way better than a perfect thing that will never be completed.  It's fairly easy to understand but I find it difficult to actually follow through with that line of thinking.

Outdoor Survival by Avalon Hill

Now, what I'm going to do is switch from making my own hex maps to using the Outdoor Survival map that was used back in the OD&D days.  If you aren't familiar with Outdoor Survival, it's a board game that was used for hex crawling.  I've wanted to do this for a while but the lack of hills always made me feel like I'd be missing out but I've gotten over it, mostly.  There are a few reasons why I want to do this, the primary reason is that I want to not have to worry about terrain placement because whenever I make my own maps I end up changing them over and over again.  The other reason is that I already own Outdoor Survival and I've just been wanting to use it for D&D.  I figure if I'm gonna use old school rules I might as well use old school resources as well.

However, while I will be using the board for terrain placement I will still be deciding where to place settlements, dungeons, lairs, etc.  I've heard that other players have used the ponds as castles and the cabins as towns but I don't really like how those are laid out, especially the towns in the middle of the map.  The castle placement bothers me less and I might use some of the ponds as castles but not all.  I'd also like to get some tiles printed with hex features on them that I could place down on the map when my players or I encounter something.  I also think it would be fun to just have a visual at the table since I pretty much do everything through theatre of the mind.

So that's pretty much it.  The map I posted previously is going to be scrapped and I've started to work on using the Outdoor Survival map for my game.

[Homebrew] Rangers

Lego Forestmen

I couldn't sleep, as usual, so I decided to work on some stuff for D&D.  Generally, I prefer classes to be broad categories and I tend to avoid getting too into the nitty gritty of sub-classes.  If a player, for example, wanted to play a paladin I would tell them to roleplay it out rather than create something that has a mechanical distinction.  Despite this, I thought it could be fun to come up with a ranger class.  Looking at B/X, the halfling seems to be a good basis for a ranger so I tweaked it slightly and feel pretty good about how it came out.  If you're interested in checking it out, you can find it here.  Keep in mind that I haven't play tested it yet but I did try to balance it as best I could.