The Minotaur's Labyrinth

Don't worry. We're still playing. It's just been a bit since I've been able to post.

Our game has slowed down a bit due to other schedules. I've been back to work for several weeks now following a short medical leave after surgery this summer. Pre-season training for my oldest son's soccer team began. Vacations, camps, and good weather for bike-riding have all caused our sessions to happen a bit less frequently. Also, the boys decided that unless their friends are here, they don't want to progress in the main campaign. So we've done a few one-offs from the Bayhaven adventures and Space adventures and a few I made up off the cuff.

This also is compounded by the fact that we have been engaged in a MASSIVE dungeon crawl through the Labyrinth of the Minotaur. They solved the riddle to open the secret entrance only to find a 70 foot shaft descending through the underground lake. They very creatively figured out a way to descend the shaft safely utilizing some vines courtesy of the nature mage (the pets had to be left behind for this one due to the shaft and the tight nature of the corridors). That was about 5 sessions ago. I made the labyrinth a HUGE underground network of caverns and tunnels from the map pieces in the Maze of the Minotaur adventure. It's made of 35 full sheets in a 7x5 grid. Here's a picture.

We've had to move this adventure to the floor.

I've been having a blast running them through a ton of traps and battles as they make their way through this maze. I decided to lay it out like this instead of reveal it room by room for two reasons. First, I wanted them to get a sense of the vastness of the labyrinth. This is the largest map on which they've played. Second, I figured they were going to get the "secret labyrinth" feel with all of the traps and random encounters I have planned.

They descended into the labyrinth in the third row, second column (little horizontal corridor with one opening to the right). They travelled north and hit almost every room in the upper right section. They found some glowing gemstones that give each them a portable light source, several giant snakes and scorpions, two spider infestations, glowing mushrooms that disintegrated when pulled from the ground by hand (they didn't investigate those any further to discover how to harvest them), a former adventurer (now only remains) with 1 intact potion, a magical stream of healing water, a pit trap, a cave-in trap that KO'd the life mage (healer), and the minotaur - which they defeated only to see it retreat into what can only be described as a glimmering portal.

After finally freeing the life mage from the rubble from the cave-in, they are now investigating a trap in the next room (where the minis are standing looking into) that they have learned is tripped by magic but not by physical objects. It's fascinating seeing them go through the process of detecting the trap (archer) through the partially blocked exit of their current cavern, detecting it is magical plant-based, testing it with a fireball, then an arm, then a staff, then a staff with magic sent through it, then a magical rock, then an arrow, then an arrow with ice that was created magically on it, then an improvised torch made from a magically manifested stick (nature mage) lit by magically manifested fire (elemental mage). Through all of that (with very little prompting from me) they figured out that the trap was triggered by magic, but not be physical things - even if those physical things were created by magic.

They still have yet to discover the actual lair of the minotaur, which will hold a second piece of the artifact as well as two scrolls for each character that will let them choose one of two variations on an upgrade to their abilities (i.e. - the life mage will be able to choose from a resurrection style spell that fully heals an ally from a KO once per day/adventure or permanently upgrading "Healing Touch" to a ranged spell). They also will probably run across an arrow trap (think Indian Jones), another group of lost adventurers that will end up being a reanimating skeleton attack trap, a locked room escape riddle, a mirage trap, an acid stream trap, and at least one more treasure room (the very upper right room was a treasure room).

The Minotaur's labyrinth has been loads of fun so far for them (they were laughing hysterically when the nature mage's spelled failed and ended up sprouting thorns out of the elemental mage's bald head). Hopefully, they'll bring back rewards worth the danger the faced (so far, each of them has been KO'd at least twice, and they were one character away from a TPK - Total Party Knockout).

If you guys are interested, I can post more detailed descriptions of the traps and consequences ifyou would like to include them in your adventures. Let me know below. I can do a whole post just on the traps I've used to trick my boys and their friends and the ones I've yet to spring upon them. They might be my favorite part of their adventures because I love watching them go through the process of devising solutions to the traps when discovered or triggered.

Happy adventuring!

Paper/Cardstock Minis and GM Screen

 Here are the pics of the minis and their clips that promised before:

 

Some of the minis from one of the Space adventures. You can see that I've stopped gluing the monsters together. I just put the clip on the bottom after they are folded. You can also see the GM screen I made when I found I needed some way of keeping some of the information I needed to use hidden from the players. I use the clips for everything. I also use the clips to store all the monsters (on the left).

 

The 2 droids on the left are how I do the monsters now. I just flip the metal arms up. The ones on the right are how I used to do them. I got tired of putting the metal arms back on every time I wanted to switch the clips to a different monster. The kids don't mind If they are just flipped up.

 

The monsters are printed on cardstock, but I don't like using an entire piece of cardstock for one mini for bosses. So this is what it looks like just printed on paper. They are not quite as durable, but they work just fine. I leave the arms on for paper minis because they add support. I usually glue the hero minis to cardstock or print them on cardstock if they will be used more than once, and so I give them a permanent binder clip base without metal arms.

Favorite Moments 2

Ok, so I wanted to share a proud dad moment with you, or more accurately, I'd like to take a moment to be a proud dad. As I was thinking through some of our game sessions I realized something about my oldest that gave me a great big smile. I'm watching him grow into a real critical thinker right before my eyes. I constantly find it amazing the things of which he thinks while we are playing. Setting dressing suddenly becomes an integral part of the story when he enters the room.

I had set up an encounter with goblins performing some sort of magical ritual in place of rescuing the miners in the Mines of Martek adventure. I simply described a table with an open book surrounded by several potion bottles, some empty while others had yet to be used, that the goblin shaman (named Benny Goblin) was using to recite a chant for the spell of transference. Suddenly, my son decided that he wanted to take the potions and the spell book. Ummm ... ok. He wanted to try and use the spells in the book. Ummm ... it's an alchemy book. You'll need potions and ingredients. Now he wanted to know the ingredients. Sooo ... now he is using the Spell of Finding in the goblin's alchemy spell book to search out the cult of evil fire druids, and I am writing a spell book and developing an economy of potions and their uses to satisfy his clever little brain. I refuse to just deny them their creativity without reason, and so I get the privilege of watching his brain begin working 5 to 10 moves ahead of what he thinks is coming. It's awesome. He created an entire dynamic to the game that didn't exist before because he decided to pick up the spell book after defeating the goblin shaman. He also created a hook to get them looking for the lair of the Minotaur aside from the 5 pieces of the artifact. After all, where else can you find the fangs of a giant snake that are needed to cast the Spell of Finding but in the Maze of the Minotaur ...

I'd love to hear your memory-maker moments in the comments.

Favorite Moments 1

I've decided that I'd like to share some of our best moments from our campaign (and some of the moments from our non-campaign adventures, too). We have played Hero Kids for at least 40-50 hours at this point (not including all my prep time, which I also love) and have had a dozen or so "memory-maker" moments. As a dad, these are why I play games with my boys, coach my boys' teams, and vehemently protect my free time to spend with them. Their joy gives me joy.

I'll share 2 moments in this post, and more in later posts.

One of the best reactions I have gotten so far is when I made my 7-year-old son break down in tears just before bed. Granted, I don't usually love when my kids are bawling their eyes out (especially when I caused it), but this time it gave a nice warm feeling in my heart. That's because after nearly 6 hours of playing over 2 sessions we had just reached the "Big Bad" of our first adventure (yes, Basement O' Rats took us over 9 hours to complete), and I had decided that they would get captured by having the whole party get KO'd instead of defeat the boss. Unfortunately, it was also an hour past bedtime and a "good" place to stop until the next day. My son thought he had just lost his character forever and that all the clever things they'd done meant nothing and that they'd lost the game and were done. He broke down in tears, and went to bed wailing, "but I don't WANT us to lose my guy! We're dead! I want to play more!" It took another 20 minutes and a few hugs to reassure him that I had a plan and his guy wasn't dead.

The second moment came at the end of that adventure when my older son, who plays the warlock, finally got what he'd wanted the whole time. I had limited him to fire magic throughout the adventure so that he learned to roleplay the character rather than himself. Being a little disappointed that he couldn't "bend" the elements, he reluctantly limited himself to creative fire-based solutions. The boon that he was given at the end of the adventure was control over all of the elements. He jumped up, threw his fists in the air in triumph, and yelled, "I'm the AVATAR!!"

If you want to share any memory-maker moments you've had with Hero Kids, post them below.

Leveling Scheme

Leveling is difficult in Hero Kids. Quickly, the success percentage gets way too high in the player's favor if you just add more dice to the attack rolls. So here is what I came up with. Each of these comes at the end of an adventure.

1. Boon - A character specific boost that gives extra abilities or an expansion of current abilities. For example, one of my sons plays a fire mage. After the first adventure, a water spirit granted him the use of all the elements for his magic. This simply expanded his ability to be creative in coming up with solutions to the problems facing them.

2. Pet - This is given as a reward for saving Precious Penelope's Pets during the Fires of Rivenshore adventure. I've slightly adjusted the pet rules as well. I give them 3 parts to their turns which they share between their hero and their pet. So they can either move both and attack with 1 or move 1 and attack with both. (For a more detailed explanation, ask in the comments.)

3. Items - A character specific item that will give the player a creative way to problem solve. For example, I gave my son that is playing an archer a Great Bow. It is a one-hit KO with %100 chance to hit. No roll is necessary. On the negative side, it uses the whole turn (all 3 parts) and does one damage to the character using it (recoil ... it's a BIG bow).

4. Money - I had my players find this in the Mines of Martek. They can use this to buy potions, weapons, armor, and items in town or for bribing, etc. They can find it in any of several treasure chests that can be lying around, in an overturned minecart, or as they search goblin areas.

5. Replacement Dice - This is a bonus die that can be used to replace any 1 die in an attack roll, ability check, defense roll, or any roll of a monster. Once the player decides to use it, it MUST be used to replace a rolled die, even if the roll is worse (it's basically a re-roll). For example, if the player rolls a 5 for an attack and the monster rolls a 6 for defense, the player can replace the 6 with another roll of his or her own. Can only be used once per encounter.

6. Hero Dice - If multiple sixes are rolled during an attack roll or ability check, the player may roll a hero die. It is basically the reverse of the traps in the Maze of the Minotaur. To use a Hero Die, roll a D6. For attacks, if a 1 or 2 is rolled, 1 damage is dealt. If a 3 or 4 is rolled, the player does 2 damage. If a 5 or 6 is rolled, 3 damage is dealt. For ability checks, The higher the number, the more pronounced the benefits are. For example, if trying to leap across a deep ditch, a 1 would have him land safely while a 6 may have him dive across, turning a half somersault in the middle as he catches an arrow fired by a hidden goblin scout and flings it back at the goblin, instantly knocking it out and preventing it from reporting back. As he lands, the impact shifts a carefully placed stone revealing a hidden box beneath it which contains a jewel worth 4 silver coins. Hero Dice can only be used once per adventure, though multiple sixes does not happen very often as is.

7. Mega Dice - Give the player a D10 to roll in place of all attack dice. For example, the player may either roll 3xD6 melee dice for the bear or 1xD10. This can only be used once per encounter.

8. Fourth part to turn - Now both the hero and the pet can move and attack.

9. Add 1 die to a type of attack that is currently empty - Let the warlock add a die to melee, or the warrior add a die to ranged.

10. Same as 9.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do next.

The interesting part is when they figure out how to combine the different effects into superhero-like moves. For example, using a replacement die during an attack roll to get a second 6 which allows them to roll their Hero Die. Or using the Mega Die during a split attack. Or combining the Mega Die with the "gain 1 extra die for melee attack if less than full health" ability.

My goal is for them to be able to do massive attacks by the time they reach Zimarim the Grim. I currently have him spec'd with 10 hit points and plan to give him a heal ability and 2-4 "pets" as appropriate to their power. They get excited when they do big heroic things.

Above all, I temper these boosts with storytelling and extra costs when they become overpowered. For example, when the fire mage wanted to create a rock pillar large enough to lift the chandelier off of Roger (Fires of Rivenshore), I made him tap into the life force of his brother (which had to be willingly given) because of the difficulty, time crunch, and because of all the distraction of the fires burning around him. He had to roll 4 dice, getting at least 2 5's or 6's. A success let him accomplish it; a failure lashed back and did 1 damage to his brother. Remember, make it up.

Mines of Martek

I had to use the wall from area where the track runs for the main rooms. There was a room at the end of the track with a pit in which they fought goblins in and rescued Eldar D'Dember.

The last 2 shots are of the secret puzzle-locked entrance to the Maze of the Minotaur. The first shows the puzzle solved. The second shows the pillar on which they discovered the puzzle.

Campaign Overview

Here is the long campaign overview we are using.

Zimarim the Grim is an evil wizard that has attacked and all but destroyed the town of Willowsdell. He did so by several long-forgotten magical attacks. During these attacks, a hero by the name of Barnabus Longwillow left Willowsdell in search of the one laying siege to the town and a way to undo the magical destruction happening all around him. He happens upon a pool of water in a cave beneath a mountain on the far side of the bay. Thinking that this was the source of the magical attacks on his town, he took out his Great Bow and fired upon the water spirit within. The spirit turned him into a giant rat and laid a spell on him that trapped him in the caves where he found the pool.

Fast Forward.

The Basement O' Rats adventure picks up the story with our heroes needing to save their friend, Roger, from being abducted by giant rats. The adventure includes two changes. The first is that the pool in the "empty room" is the magical pool containing the water spirit that transformed Barnabus. The second is that the heroes are defeated by the Rat King and his rat army (keep adding rats coming out of the hidey holes until they are overwhelmed). When they wake up after being KO'd, they are in a rat prison. Roger lets them out. He takes them to meet with the Rat King who reveals that he is actually Barnabus Longwillow, the great, great, great grandfather of Roger. He was raising a rat army to take revenge on the water spirit when he learned of a magic book that his descendants had obtained that may contain a spell to reverse the transformation. When he ordered the rats (simply regular rats that had been grown by magic and aren't very smart) to get the book from Roger's family, the grabbed Roger by mistake. Everyone goes back to the water spirit where she turns Barnabus back into a young hero and grants a boon to each of the heroes. (She granted the gift of use of all elements to our fire mage, and gave Barnabus' Great Bow to our archer, which is an one-shot kill with the negatives of using up the movement and action of his turn and causing one damage per shot.)

She also sends the heroes on a quest to find 5 pieces of an artifact that will destroy the evil wizard once assembled and used in conjunction with a magic spell. They return to the tavern to find that a magical dome (force field) has appeared over Rivenshore keeping anyone from leaving or entering the town. Also, fires have started appearing all over town.

The Fires of Rivenshore adventure picks up the story. The adventure includes two changes. The first is the addition of an encounter at Precious Penelope's Pets, where after they save the menagerie, Penelope offers them each a pet. This occurs just before the encounter with Bree. The second difference is that at some point during the conversation with Bree, she reveals that when she first began manifesting the fire mage abilities, she ran away and met a man in the woods that taught her to control her talents. He also told her to fight back when she is bullied. She feels remorseful over what happened when she did, and so she was on her way to see if she could leave the dome through a secret passage she had heard about. It is in the Mines of Martek.

The heroes must use the mines to try and leave the dome and find a way to get rid of it or search for the 5 pieces of the artifact.

The Mines of Martek adventure picks up the story here. Instead of mining tools outside the entrance, they find a hidden box (if they are clever enough to find it) sealed with magic. It is opened by placing the sigil of the High Embers into the matching indentation on the top of the box. Otherwise, the adventure can be run as is (slight change in the beginning story part) with the addition of a secret false wall at the end of the mines that leads out into the woods. We replaced the first trapped miner with a goblin alchemy ritual that was transferring power from a cloaked Halfling bound in a pit to some unknown magic spell (turns out to be the dome). The cloaked Halfling turns out to be Eldar D'Ember, the leader of the High Embers, a cult of Fire Druids, and the one that trained Bree. Once released, he disappears in a cloud of orange smoke, laughing maniacally at the heroes. They catch a glimpse of the emblem around his neck, which matches the magical inlay on the box they found (which contains 1 of the pieces of the artifact). It is the key (or one of them).

The second big change we made is within the interior of the mines. There is a puzzle-locked secret entrance to the Maze of the Minotaur in the underground lake into which the river runs. I'll post pictures of how I set up the mines. One of the pieces of the artifact will be in the Minotaur's lair.

The heroes can leave through the secret back entrance of the mines into the woods beyond, or solve the puzzle and gain entrance to the Maze of the Minotaur.

When outside, they encounter a house on legs in which an old woman lives. She is Baba Yaga, the Wood Witch. She is neither good nor evil, mean nor nice. She is as helpful as she wants to be in response to how nice the heroes are to her. She travels around in her house providing help and information to the heroes as necessary.

From here, they can either go to Glade of the Unicorn, or Curse of the Shadow Walkers. The unicorn has a piece of the artifact.

The fourth piece of the artifact is in the Tomb of the Lost King, and the fifth was stolen by pirates. The heroes will acquire that in the Escape from the Ghost Pirates adventure. The pirates stole the artifact from the wise woman's hut in the Curse of the Shadow Walkers adventure.

I will include the leveling scheme in another post.