The old school primer and Wizardawn are both incredible resources.  I am leaning towards hirelings if my gang wants to hire them!   Good stud so far- thanks folks!

10 minute exploration turn, 2 "moves" per turn, searching X area costs 1 "move" - have the party declare their move AS a party. "We explore/map forward in formation A", "We search this area and set a forward scout down tunnel 2", "We set an ambush and send an advance party as bait", etc, etc

This mostly so that it is clear if the PC+hirelings party is moving at "exploration" or "chase" speeds, and so you can make any NPCs/monsters in the dungeon react appropriately to their movement/activity when they become aware of them. Module "room keys" are mostly about where NPCs start-off when the party starts the session. Once the party has been detected, make sure the NPCs react (scouts go warn leaders, leaders rally their forces at choke-points, etc). The 10 minute turn allows the GM to eye-ball these reactions across the whole dungeon and make rulings based on the various character/monster stats and familiarly with the location/module.

Pre-generatea list of Random Encounters based on the dungeon level, location, or module's RE charts. This "procedural" generation sets up a "timeline" that the party has a greater chance of interacting with the longer they spend in the dungeon. This allows you to think about how these random results would change the dungeon, and the specific timing and context that the PCs encounter each one will fill in the needed details (make sure to use the Reaction rolls, or simply roll 2d10 and results near 50 are neutral, low are negative, high are positive). Also, make sure that some of the RE chart results include "color elements": sounds, smells, environmental effects, wildlife that isn't immediately dangerous, and evidence of the other things in the dungeon and on the RE chart.

Quote from: Telarus;102099610 minute exploration turn, 2 "moves" per turn, searching X area costs 1 "move" - have the party declare their move AS a party. "We explore/map forward in formation A", "We search this area and set a forward scout down tunnel 2", "We set an ambush and send an advance party as bait", etc, etc

This reminds me I need to designate a Caller for dungeon delving in my online group. Up to 4-5 players now plus NPCs and it's too much to cope with in text chat when everyone is doing their own thing. Especially Jorian.

Keep the tension up.  The way we were taught is, "Whatever you say, your character says."  So if the players are running their mouths, their characters are down in this lightless, monster-filled hellhole, running their mouths -- and attracting wandering monsters (no treasure, no XP!) by platoons.

Concentrates the mind wonderfully.

Ha, I'm starting to realize that this is also tied to the to the 10 minute exploration turn. If the players have spent 10 minutes talking about a plan with no-one telling the Caller "I'm doing something now" (I imagine a 5 min egg timer being flipped over twice), the GM rolls a RE check and SOMETHING NEW HAPPENS. :evil:

Quote from: Patrick;1020897Apologies if there was any confusion on the version- I was thinking 0e but meant BECMI.  But I still appreciate the replies and will check out those articles!

I ran BECMI pretty much rules-as-written. I don't think it NEEDS any house rules.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1020987There's been more roleplaying keeping henchmen happy than through any other venue.

The key is not to treat the NPC henchmen and hirelings as mindless automata, but as actual people.

"Lesson two was this: when Mike Mornard is DMing, assume that you're speaking in character. We entered the dungeon with a lot of hirelings: we had hired a dozen bandits last session, and this session we hired half a dozen heavy footmen. At three people per rank, our expedition filled about twenty feet of 10-foot-wide corridor.

Our party was so unwieldy that the wizard joked about letting the dangers of the dungeon doing our downsizing for us. The hirelings heard him, and they were not happy. A few bad reaction rolls later, and my bandit followers abandoned us in the dungeon.

We should have foreseen this, because Mike's NPCs tended to join into our out-of-character strategy conversations. When we lost a heavy footman, and we were discussing whether it was worth it to get him resurrected, the other heavy footmen weighed in strongly on the 'pro' column."

http://blogofholding.com/?p=4050

Quote from: Telarus;102099610 minute exploration turn, 2 "moves" per turn, searching X area costs 1 "move" - have the party declare their move AS a party. "We explore/map forward in formation A", "We search this area and set a forward scout down tunnel 2", "We set an ambush and send an advance party as bait", etc, etc

This mostly so that it is clear if the PC+hirelings party is moving at "exploration" or "chase" speeds, and so you can make any NPCs/monsters in the dungeon react appropriately to their movement/activity when they become aware of them. Module "room keys" are mostly about where NPCs start-off when the party starts the session. Once the party has been detected, make sure the NPCs react (scouts go warn leaders, leaders rally their forces at choke-points, etc). The 10 minute turn allows the GM to eye-ball these reactions across the whole dungeon and make rulings based on the various character/monster stats and familiarly with the location/module.

Pre-generatea list of Random Encounters based on the dungeon level, location, or module's RE charts. This "procedural" generation sets up a "timeline" that the party has a greater chance of interacting with the longer they spend in the dungeon. This allows you to think about how these random results would change the dungeon, and the specific timing and context that the PCs encounter each one will fill in the needed details (make sure to use the Reaction rolls, or simply roll 2d10 and results near 50 are neutral, low are negative, high are positive). Also, make sure that some of the RE chart results include "color elements": sounds, smells, environmental effects, wildlife that isn't immediately dangerous, and evidence of the other things in the dungeon and on the RE chart.

Pretty much all of the above reminds me of how we tend to run/play TFT and GURPS. I love this sort of play, and my fun/interesting/hilarious experiences with it preference for it is one of the main reasons I rail against the more common popular model of PCs who are not at much risk of dying in combat, GMs pre-planning and balancing most encounters and events, story-oriented GM'ing, cheap/easy healing & ressurrection, 4 superheroes who can do/carry everything and never have NPC companions, etc.

Quote from: S'mon;1021105This reminds me I need to designate a Caller for dungeon delving in my online group. Up to 4-5 players now plus NPCs and it's too much to cope with in text chat when everyone is doing their own thing. Especially Jorian.

Considering how others act I don't think it would be any better or worse without me. I was specifically silent for a long time when in Chris's session to check how it works and nothing was different. People in pnp tend to OOC chat, ingame they tend to talk with each other IC or with the NPCs. Although the addition of NPCs I admit is making it harder for a GM to keep up, but that won't make a 'caller' useful if player characters still want to go on different paths, or if useful fighter npc-s like certain dwarves flee when just ahead of that event it was specifically discussed to keep together and fight in better coordination to increase our chances. (those dwarves would've really been useful at the doorway to hold the line... if you say those rolled something lile loyalty/morale I want to know how to improve it o_O)