Stonehell Open Table

NOTE: This campaign is over. This page remains only as a historical record.

I’m running an open table dungeon crawl game, using the B/X ruleset. Sessions are held online on Roll20 and Discord, whenever I feel like spending a few hours throwing (virtual) dice. This is usually on Sundays in the early afternoon, but the occasional weekday evening game is also possible. If you think that you’d like to participate, read the rest of this page, then contact me however you normally would and I’ll send you an invite. (Or, if we’ve never actually met, then the “Contact” link at the bottom of the page is worth a try.)

What?

I assume that you’re already at least slightly familiar with roleplaying games. If you’re already also familar with playing old-school RPGs online, feel free to skip this section. Otherwise, read on.

  • “Open table” means you can drop in on sessions whenever you’d like. There isn’t a fixed group of players, so you might be playing with different people each time you do. If the thought of playing with strangers makes you nervous, that’s understandable. Take a look at the code of conduct and see if that helps to put your mind at ease.
  • “Dungeon crawl” means that each session will be spent exploring an immense dungeon full of monsters and treasure, while trying to avoid or overcome the former, and extracting the latter. More specifically, we’ll be playing in Michael Curtis’s Stonehell Dungeon. If you’re already familiar with Stonehell, then please keep in mind the difference between player knowledge and character knowledge, and refrain from spoiling anything for the other players. If you’re not familiar, then so much the better.
  • “B/X Ruleset” refers to the 1981 Basic and Expert sets of the world’s most famous roleplaying game. If you don’t happen to have these box sets handy, that’s fine. Neither do I. You can get PDF versions of the rulebooks on DriveThruRPG, but I prefer Necrotic Gnome’s Old School Essentials. The basic rules are free, and are enough to get started. The full set of rules are available in print at Necrotic Gnome, or as PDFs at DriveThruRPG but I recommend waiting until you’ve played a session or two before buying anything.
  • “Online”, means we’ll using Roll20 for character sheets and dice rolls, and Discord for voice chat, as well as scheduling and out-of-game communication. Feel free to use a nickname, if you’d like.

How it works

Whenever I feel like running a game, I’ll announce a date and time on the Discord server, along with how many open seats there are (usually it’ll be around 6). If you want to play, respond in the channel to claim a seat. Seats are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. In order to keep things fair to people who don’t see me all the time, telling me in person, text messages, email, or anywhere else besides Discord that you want to play doesn’t count. It has to be on Discord.

If you want to play but don’t get a seat, I’ll put you on a waiting list. If anyone drops out before the session, I’ll go down the waiting list to fill their seat. Anyone still on the waiting list will get first dibs on a seat in the next session.

If you’ve RSVP’d for a session and can’t make it for whatever reason, that’s cool. Life happens. Just let me know as soon as possible, so I can tag in someone from the waiting list.

There’ll be a voice chat channel for talking during sessions. Anyone who wants to spectate can join as well, but only players and the DM (that’s me) will be able to speak. Likewise, anyone can hop onto Roll20 to watch, as long as there aren’t so many spectators that it causes technical issues. Also, if you’re spectating, please refrain from chatting in Roll20. Save it for the peanut gallery.

I’ll try to run at least one 3-4 hour session every couple of weeks, most likely on Sunday afternoons (US Central Time). Sometimes I might be able to do a shorter session during weekday evenings.

Update: This is all still true in theory, but I haven’t had to add anyone to the waitlist so far, and we’ve mostly played over video chat. Having your camera on is optional.

Things you should know

  • My sole qualification as a DM is my willingness to do it.
  • Characters can (and often will) die, but you can always make a new one.
  • If you don’t work together, you won’t stand a chance.
  • There aren’t any player maps, unless players make them.
  • Combat is “theater of the mind”, and dice rolls are made in the open.

Code of Conduct

Don’t skip this section! It’s important!

Look, if you’re in this game, then I at least know you well enough to know that you’re not a bad person. But because you’ll be playing with other people whom you may not have met before, I think it’s a good idea to lay down some basic expectations, just to keep things running smoothly.

  1. Be excellent to each other.
  2. Remember that it’s just a game, and we’re all here to have fun.
  3. You’re all on the same team, so act like it.
  4. No harassing or abusing anyone, for any reason.
  5. Keep it PG-13.

Pretty simple, right?

I hope it’ll never come up, but if your behavior is out of line, I will warn you once. There will be no second warnings. If it’s something especially egregious, there won’t even be one warning. But I know you’ll all be cool.