Introduction

My DolMEGwood campaign began this past Saturday. It's an interpolation of Gavin Norman's Dolmenwood hexcrawl with Luke Gearing's system for Wolves Upon the Coast—for an expanded introduction of the hack and what I hope to achieve with this game, see this post.

I hope for this play report to serve as a retrospective of how I ran the game: what calls I made, what models I used, the mindset I was in when I established things about the world. The session wasn't necessarily action-packed, but I think it served as a solid baseline for the grand campaign to come.

Rather than recap the whole thing myself, I think that these play reports will generally be formatted as my commentary on a (lightly-edited) player-written summary of the session. (I offer a gold star to one player who writes a detailed summary of the session for both myself and other players who weren't present. If there isn't a player recap for a session, then something is wrong with the gold star economy... and that's something to discuss in a play report too! For more on gold stars, see the DolMEGwood introduction.)

Before the summary, a list of the characters and their players:

• Gertwinne Candleswick, a down-on-her-luck fortune teller (played by Hannah)
• Aldus Browne, a down-on-his-luck cartographer (played by Alzred)
• Bunk Loomer, a down-on-his-luck dockhand (played by Tenar)

These names were all randomly rolled from the provided Dolmenwood tables—what brilliant results.

This session's summary was written by Hannah. She's also written an accompanying TL;DR, which I'll provide before the more lengthy summary, if you just want the events sans commentary:

• set out from Castle Brackenwold on 18th of Chysting
• traveled up Horse-Eye road in direction of Prigwort
• at Henchgate, saw a warning about the Nag-Lord
• spent the night at the Refuge of Saint Key
• earned 4 groats watching over the horses of a group of knights led by Sir Arthur
• learned about the crystal caves at Fog Lake, a beast called the Scoyfe, and more details about the Nag-Lord from Abbott Wiston Spatulard
• traveled on to Prigwort on the 19th with the group of knights
• learned that they're pursuing the horde of the Wyrm Chasobrythe, decided to tag along with them on this venture
• ended the session by reaching Prigwort safely

One other thing of note before the play report proper is that those familiar with Dolmenwood might notice that some proper nouns are misspelled—it's the Refuge of St. Keye, for example—and that is because if something is not written down in a language a character can read, I don't provide the "proper" spelling. (The Refuge of St. Keye had a sign that Bunk could read, so this particular example was perhaps a bad one, as it's actually just a mistake made by the players. Tsk tsk.) Doing this hurts my control-F-loving heart, but I'm experimenting with various methods of verisimilitude. This might change in the future; I'll report on how it's going at a later date.

Session One Commentary

On the 18th of Chysting, a small party set out from the Poppycock Inn, an inn mainly frequented by "ne'er-do-wells" in Castle Brackenwold (1508). [The party] had met at the inn and agreed to travel into the Dolmenwood together.

Session one began as all good Dolmenwood campaigns ought to: rolling for the date and the weather. Originally I had conceived of the campaign beginning on the Dolmenwood equivalent of the real-life date of the first session, Lymewald 17, but reconsidered that once I realized just how harsh winter is in Dolmenwood—the weather inhibits travel often, and the seasonal penalties to resting while camping are quite harsh. Especially for a pool of players who are not all OSR veterans, I thought it best to give them a sporting chance. One d12 and one d31 later, they landed on Chysting 18: a much milder date to ease into Dolmenwood. Often in games I forget to think about weather, but the Dolmenwood procedures really help me remember about that factor, and I think weather is so important for Dolmenwood, travel-focused as it is. I hope the emphasis on random weather will really crystalize the setting day-to-day for the players.

I began players in the Poppy Cock, the one inn detailed in Castle Brackenwold outside of the Inner City—a much more accessible (geographically, monetarily) location for travelers just-arrived in the Tithelands. Additionally I imagine the Poppy Cock as a "home base" of sorts for the campaign—characters who end a session in Castle Brackenwold will be assumed to be staying here, I think, unless they make arrangements to stay in the Inner City. My conception of the Inner City is that while travelers/non-wealthy locals are allowed inside the gates during the day, everyone is shuffled out when the sun sets. You need an amount of wealth or a pedigree to mix with the clientele of the Chateau or the Bitter Rose. Of course, it might behoove the players to start schmoozing in those upper-class inns—the types of rumors one might gather and the opportunities that show themselves are far different amongst the ne'er-do-wells of the Outer City than the (at least outwardly) more noble denizens of the Inner City.

Before setting out, they had a conversation with the inn's proprietor, One-Eyed Gil, a woman who has two eyes and arms covered in tattoos of Breggles. Gil told the party of two entrances into Dolmenwood: the Horse-Eye Road, which heads northwest to the Henchgate and continues further in the wood to the Refuge of Saint Key (1307) and then to the town of Prigwort, or the Camp Road, which heads southeast to an inn called The Roost (1309), described by Gil as a prissy treehouse for romantics.

As above, I imagine the Poppy Cock as a place to gather rumors and, shall we say, less honorable hooks; I think Gil is a perfect character to facilitate that sort of thing—she has her own motives and is incentivized to mingle a little with newcomers to Castle Brackenwold, especially those looking for easy money. I plan to lean into Gil's rumor-providing a little more in later sessions, but I think myself and the players were more focused on painting the broad strokes of Dolmenwood in this one. Gil is the first local information source the players have about Dolmenwood, and I think that I will, in later sessions, lean further into her being a biased information source. I gave her directions a little color with the description of the Roost, but overall could do better in the future at characterizing NPCs at the table. Gavin Norman's descriptions of the NPC behaviors, appearances, demeanors, and desires are absolutely wonderful, and really help me imagine the NPCs in my mind—I just have to portray that to the players. Mostly I subscribe to the belief that so long as information is being conveyed and the tone of the interaction is being clearly communicated, roleplaying can and should simply involve "the gist" of the conversation, but I must confess I do think a certain amount of "play-acting" in roleplay has its place.

Other than Gil's portrayal (or lack thereof), a small regret I have in this interaction is my description of her tattoos. I described them as being colorful tattoos that find around her biceps, depicting burly goat-men—fur, hooves, goat-heads, and horns, but bipedal—but then I went further to say that this picture aligns with the description of a group of non-human sapient folk in Dolmenwood called "breggles." The justification of sharing this information is from rumors they've heard in the approach to Castle Brackenwold from the wider world, and the fact that breggles are fairly "mundane" in Dolmenwood means they're likely often talked about, but I think that this is a case where my desire to give the players as much information as possible to aid their decision-making is at odds with the decision to have the characters be foreign to Dolmenwood. I think it would have made for a much better moment for the player's first interaction with a real breggle if they only recognized them, like, "Wow! A goat-person, like Gil's tattoos!" and not "Oh, a breggle." Naming the thing takes away some of the wonder.

Another important thing to note is that the players are referencing hex notation in their notes. As I shared in the introduction, I've provided the players with both the Dolmenwood player's map (gorgeous, descriptive, but not to-scale) and a blank hex map that they can fill in themselves. In any interaction I first provide a general description of a location (the Refuge of St. Keye is one day to the northwest, following the Horse-Eye Road) but also, if the information source knows the exact location, a hex number (the Refuge of St. Keye lies in 1307). I wobbled back and forth on having hexes be a player-facing navigation tool, but I think overall it's a useful type of information for them to have, especially when planning long journeys.

The three travelers (and their two donkeys, one horse, and one pigeon) set out along the Horse-Eye Road, interested in reaching Prigwort (1106), the largest settlement within the Dolmenwood, which is run by the Elevated Council of Brewmasters and known for its breweries and taverns.

It was a pretty smart move for the players to stock up on animals using their starting money. The donkeys and horses will be invaluable for extended travel, even if the increased storage capacity didn't overmuch affect this session in particular. The pigeon, trained as it is (using Adam's animal training rules), will also surely be helpful in the future.

They reached the Henchgate at midday, discovering it to be a 30-foot-high tunnel made of the twisted-together trunks and branches of dozens of trees. The lower parts of the trees were covered in carved graffiti, and wooden faces protruded from the top of the gate. The faces greeted the party by name, and Gertwinne made some small talk with them about the weather, but as soon as she started asking questions of substance, the faces just looked at her in mild confusion. Meanwhile, among the initials and carved hearts, Bunk found a cryptic warning: ["THE NAG-LORD MOVES SOUTH / DOOM!"] When he asked the faces about it, they looked terrified and said nothing.

I was thrilled when the players decided to travel northwest from Castle Brackenwold, as I think the Henchgate is such a wonderful introduction into that tone of "vaguely sinister, but nonetheless whimsy-filled" that Dolmenwood cultivates so well. I described the faces as speaking in unison: wind-like voices issued out of tree-hollow mouths and expressions formed alongside creaking that sounded like the Green Knight's movement foley from the 2021 film. They greeted the characters by name, welcoming them to the Wood. The players didn't seem too wary of the trees, but it was a nice roleplay moment as the characters first encountered the magic present in Dolmenwood.

I was hoping that the characters would carve their names amongst the numerous graffiti present in the Henchgate, because I thought it would be fun, but alas they were wary enough that they didn't wish to do so. The graffiti nonetheless offered a fun moment when Tenar asked to investigate it further. I had relayed the graffiti pretty much as Gavin describes, "with the names, initials, and love declarations of hundreds of passers-by," but Tenar wanted to know if anything besides names or hearts were carved into the trunks. I thought this was a great idea and ran with it. Inspired by a similar location in THE HALLS OF ARDEN VUL (so, minor spoilers for Arden Vul, I suppose), I decided that there surely would be something else. I actually paused the game to check my PDF of Arden Vul, to see if there was a graffito that could be ported with minimal effort directly to Dolmenwood. It proved all too specific to the dungeon (I curse Richard Barton's devotion to interconnectivity), but the process of searching inspired a solution: I had Tenar roll on the general Dolmenwood rumors table, to great success—DOOM! is an compelling graffito.

The party then passed through the Henchgate and truly entered the Dolmenwood. The party travelled on through open forest along the Horse-Eye Road until they encountered a group of peddlers coming from the Refuge of Saint Key, but with no money to buy delicious sausages or ale, they moved on.

I have taken Gavin Norman's system of travel points based on movement method and thrown it out the window, replacing it with a flat rate of travel depending on the terrain type, and tracking time in watches of six hours. I maintain the encounter rates for each type of hex, and roll an encounter for each watch of travel. Coming across the peddlers on the road was a random encounter I rolled as the party traveled through the Aldweald to the Refuge of St. Keye. I reasoned that the peddlers would be coming from Prigwort, so I referenced the various products produced by the seven breweries and decided which was most likely distributed through peddlers like these. I then described the insignia on the kegs of ale, but it seems that Hannah didn't deem that information important enough to write down—if ever it comes up, I hope the players remember! I don't plan on reminding them.

While the depth and complexity of the random encounters (and the bounty of inspiration found in the related monster entry tables) is a major draw of Dolmenwood for me, rolling encounters at the table felt like it took too long and there were too many steps. There was a noticeable lag in the session that, to me, felt boring and avoidable. I think that this is a "first session problem," though, as I can already feeling myself internalizing the steps and anticipate this procedure becoming second nature as the game goes on. Rolling every die needed for the procedure at once, rather than rolling dice as I follow/learn the steps will be something I plan to experiment with for the foreseeable future, to see if it's noticeably faster.

Another potential problem is the fact that, using my rules, the players start with no liquid funds. This was to spur them to immediately start adventuring and not begin the first session putzing around town, but does limit their avenues of engaging with the world—in this case in a fairly negative way, I'd say. I don't think I will change the character creation procedure, though, as I don't deem the problem bad enough or common enough to warrant that.

In the early evening, they arrived at the Refuge of Saint Key, a small monastery covered ivy and full of travelers and kegs of ale. A room was two pennies to rent, so the party resolved to sleep outside near where their animals and four other horses stood tied to a post. Aldus introduced himself to the group of four knights who were the owners of the four horses, and offered to keep an eye on their horses for a small fee. The leader, Sir Arthur, took him up on it, and offered a generous 4 groats for the party to watch the horses.

The Refuge of St. Keye is perfectly positioned to be the night-stop on the two-day journey to Prigwort. I thus anticipate it to be an oft-travelled-through locale in this game, and I wanted the players to spend a little more time here than a brief description and a hard cut to morning. I got that wish; the players thoroughly explored and interacted with everyone here. They were warned about sleeping in the forest, for fear of fairies or other dangers, and the Refuge is smack dab in the middle of Forest, but in their search for lodging they immediately hit the problem of Having No Money again, and had to get creative.

When approaching the monastery, I described it as not having a proper stable, but rather a number of horses and carts were simply tied to posts outside or were allowed to graze freely. Latching on to this information, Alzred had an idea: Aldus asked one of the monks if he could point him to the owners of the few warhorses I described as towering above the other draught and riding horses. (Originally, this was just set dressing that I hadn't thought much about.) On the spot I made up a group of four young knights: romantic, naïve teenagers riding from Castle Brackenwold to have their own fairytale adventure. This wasn't something rolled on a table, but rather just people I thought would be genre-appropriate. When Aldus emphasized the dangers of the wood to them and offered to watch their horses outside through the night for a fee, I hesitated: my first reaction was to have the young noble scoff at the obviously-Third-Estate man being so forward with a transactional relationship, rather than participating in the feudalistic dance of "free service" being rewarded, but decided to make a reaction roll to determine the young man's disposition. I rolled a 12: not just a positive inclination, but friendly! The young romantic, Sir Arthur (a name rolled on the random table of noble names provided in the Dolmenwood Campaign Book!), thus looked past the unintentional slight and, already a little drunk from the monks' excellent beer, offered substantial payment in advance. (This is unpaid labor, thus "worth" only 2sp per day, but Arthur offered him double; at the table I referenced the Arrested Development banana meme.) In the future, I think I will be less "generous" with friendly reaction rolls; I think a fair wage is more than enough for the little risk involved in the service. The Refuge of St. Keye is a well-traveled locale and fairly safe, even outside of the monastery itself in the forest clearing. It wouldn't be a very good refuge if horses were being stolen or attacked in the night. Perhaps it's protected by some warding charm? Or perhaps by God? At the very least, that's an idea well-cultivated by the inhabitants.

Bunk and Aldus attended [M]ass and then the free supper afterward while Gertwinne hung out with the animals. Bunk then spoke with the abbot, Wiston Spatulard, and learned several interesting tales. For one, pilgrims sometimes come through on their way to Fog Lake (1207), where there are crystal caves that are said to have healing properties, possibly connected with pagan rituals. To the south (1308), a horrible two-headed beast called the Scoyfe was created when two bandits slew each other in an argument over a bag of gold. It still prowls, dragging travelers into its glade. Several years ago, some knights claimed they slew it, but somehow, it returned.

Abbot Wiston Spatulard, whom Gavin describes as "desperate to talk to someone new" and "can’t keep a secret," is another perfect source of rumors in the surrounding areas. I think I did a much better job of presenting him as a biased and potentially-misinforming source, rather than the omniscient quest-giver, compared to Gil; his apathetic spluttering to stay on the roads and remain out of the cursèd forest, while simultaneously sharing exactly what the players, playing a dragongame, should head directly toward, was a fun dichotomy to roleplay. Those familiar with the Dolmenwood campaign setting might notice an inconsistency in the above paragraph; this is something that Hannah must have misheard or misinterpreted, not something the abbot falsely relayed. I <3 misinformation (but ONLY when it's minor).

Regarding the free supper, Gavin charges normal prices for food at the monastery; while I think it makes sense the monks would more-overtly charge for the limited amount of overnight lodging, so I don't regret that initial decision, I decided that if travelers attended Mass, they'd get a free dinner. They still have to pay for the monks' specialty ale, however. That feels a little more fitting, to me, than the monastery acting like just another inn.

As a sidenote, both "Wiston Spatulard" and "Scoyfe" were moments where I forgot my own pledge to suffer misinformation and refuse to spell things directly. It will be a learning process for me. Pray I find the strength to march on.

When Bunk asked about the Nag-Lord, the abbot grew pale and explained that the Nag-Lord is a beast and a thrall of the Devil himself. Folk tales say it's the king of the wood, and it has a court that stands in the twisted northern woods. It is said to be part-man, part-unicorn, with an accursed multitude of legs. Lady Harrowmoor's armies are currently keeping it and its forces at bay across the Groaning Loch.

I will not confirm nor deny what of what the abbot told the party is true and what is just folklore, but those that are familiar with Dolmenwood will know that this is one of the major, potentially campaign-defining conflicts in the setting. I wasn't planning on bringing it up until it came up naturally—and have not brought up other conflicts on a similar scale, and will not until they come up naturally!—but I was very happy with how organically this information was transmitted to the players; this mini-thread really encapsulates the joy of "finding out alongside the players" present when refereeing OSR games.

The night passed uneventfully, and the morning of the 19th, the party found their path aligned with that of the group of knights whose horses they'd spent the night watching over. Along the road, they learned that the knights are intending to head south of Prigwort on the trail of hoard of the Wyrm Chasobrythe, who terrorized Prigwort before ending up locked in a mortal battle with Sir Windless, the Laughing Knight. Windless nearly decapitated the wrym, but the wyrm managed to drag him into the woods, and neither have been seen since. Gertwinne, Aldus, and Bunk decided that this seemed like a good opportunity, and since the knights seem friendly, all seven agreed to pass a few days in Prigwort and then head south on the trail of the wrym's treasure.

The destination of the romantic youths, as I have begun to call them in my head, is something that was randomly rolled once it became clear the characters were going in the same direction as them and were interested in traveling together. I referenced the table of random quests for adventuring parties in the Dolmenwood Monster Book, and thought it made sense that they, a band of young knights, would be drawn to the stories of a hoard left unguarded by a wyrm long-dead; if anything, I'd bet they hope another wyrm has moved in in the meantime: a knight must face a dragon to prove himself! This was another moment that emerged organically where I could share local history framed in folklore and stories.

Another sidenote: by the time the party learned about the tale of the knight and the wyrm, I had remembered about my pledge to enable the spread of misinformation. Dolmenwood scholars will know that there are some misspellings above, but ones that are impressively close. I probably would not have gotten anywhere near the correct spelling of the wyrm's name.

The session ended with the whole group arriving in Prigwort and the knights heading to the [town's most luxurious inn, the] Wrinkled Medlar[,] while the party went to the smaller, more rustic Clashed Antler to spend a few nights.

The session was coming to a close as the players arrived in Prigwort, so my description of the town was fairly abbreviated. This, and a similar situation in session two, helped me realize that the open table requirements of ending a session in a settlement is great for timeline cohesion and driving action in the beginning of a session, but is not the best for exploration and engagement in settlement politics. I was only able to describe the Wrinkled Medlar and the Clashed Antler, but the session's end precluded any proper exploration of the town. This isn't the biggest problem, as information sources/settlement details can be revealed through searching for services, pursuing downtime activities, and rumors bought with gold stars, but it still is something that I have to get used to when running this game.

A partial solution was the creation of a gazetteer channel in the game's Discord server, where I now share the beautiful keyed maps provided in the Campaign Book and described the settlements in broad terms. I plan on doing this for any settlement in which a character spends extended downtime, as it only makes sense to me that they'd interact with the settlement more than we can simulate in any session. Much like the player's map, my hope is for this to be a baseline of information that tantalizes and inspires further questions and exploration, rather than an amount of information that ensures the players remain passive agents in the world. An example, the gazetteer's description of Prigwort (sans the attached map; perhaps one day I will spring for Bearblog Pro), lies below:

Situated in a hilly clearing in the deep woods, Prigwort is a market town famed for its breweries, inns, and taverns. Within the confines of the town wall, twisting alleys and crooked stairways weave between quaint wooden cottages and high-gabled inns, all decorated with colourful, pseudo-heraldic imagery and elaborate wood carving. A small town, Prigwort hosts a population of around 2,800. The large majority is folk of Prigwort origin, together with a smattering of travelers and traders who wandered this way and decided to remain. The map below depicts the town, ensconced in the center of the Wood. [Not really, sorry.]

The Elevated Council of Brewmasters
While certainly under the purview of the duke, House Harrowmoor is Prigwort's more immediate liege; she rules from Harrowmoor Keep, a day's ride to the north. Locally, Prigwort looks to the Elevated Council of Brewmasters to govern the town as representatives of Lady Harrowmoor. Prigwort’s council consists of one elected representative from each of the seven noble brewing houses; the house to which one belongs is an important part of the town's culture and deep-seated rivalries continually simmer. The brewmasters may be seen, upon occasion, in public houses, where they can be recognized by their regalia: a pewter torc in the form of a two-headed eagle.

Beers and Fine Spirits
Located in the middle of Dolmenwood, the brewers of Prigwort have at their disposal a vast assortment of wild herbs, roots, and berries with which to flavor their concoctions. The admixture of such substances yields beers and spirits with delightfully intoxicating and even magical qualities.

Map Key

1. Town Hall
2. Market Square
3. The Oaf in the Oast (Tavern and Baths)
4. Brandybile’s (Tailor)
5. Raptappen’s Quadrant (Inn)
6. The Earl’s Court
7. The Sea of Stars (Jeweller)
8. The Wrinkled Medlar (Inn)
9. Wyrmspittle the Herbalist (Herbalist)
10. Church of St. Waylaine
11. The Groaning Gate
12. Turret Gate
13. Abbey Gate
14. The Bagwall
15. Bag Manor
16. The Clashed Antler (Inn)
17. Harrow Road
18. Swinney Road
19. Construction Site
20. Horse-Eye Road

Supply Availability
Bustling markets are held in the market square twice a week. On Colly is the livestock and crafts market, where vehicles, mounts, hounds, tools, adventuring gear, and basic arms and armor can be found for sale. On Frisk is a lively food market with festive music, where the finest of seasonal produce can be bought, alongside some specialty food items.

This is a fair amount of information, but all the gazetteer posts follow the same general format: a broad overview of the settlement, including location, population, and any notable architectural style; any notable specialties of the town, like Prigwort's propensity for brewing or Castle Brackenwold's concentric districts; a key to the map that offers some information, but raises more questions than it answers; and an overview of the supplies generally available.

I think this is a good amount of information. The players learn of the general governmental structure of Prigwort, the potential politics with which to engage, the identifier of any movers and shakers, but they don't learn who those movers and shakers are: what are the names of the seven noble brewing houses? Their insignias? The names of their brewmasters? Similarly the map key doesn't provide every answer: the players should be familiar with the Horse-Eye Road, and it's good to learn that the Sea of Stars is a jeweler in the case of an acquisition of a wyrm's hoard of gems, but what is Bag Manor? What are they constructing at the construction site? I hope the gazetteer spurs them into further investigation.

Concluding Thoughts

This was a long one. I don't think I'll do such a detailed breakdown of every session, but I think this was a useful exercise in reflecting on both specific choices made and my broader tendencies when refereeing. Hopefully it was enjoyable and helpful for everyone reading, too.

Next post: DolMEGwood session two, where there was no overlap in players from session one; they also pursued different goals, despite (because of?) the shared information pool. I ran that session last Wednesday; I hope to get a play report posted before next Wednesday, but if future reports are half as long as this one, I may be behind for some time yet.

Next session: DolMEGwood session three, where the assembled group—some new, some returning—plans on joining the romantic youths in the pursuit of the wyrm's abandoned hoard. Hopefully they will return to Prigwort with pockets overflowing with glittering gold!