2026-05-02 More lessons learned in gaming
I was looking at an old blog post of mine: 2021-04-05 The things I learned. There, I listed all the campaigns I played and tried to find a sentence each for what worked, what didn't work and what I had learned. It's a strange format.
2021-04-05 The things I learned
More importantly, however, what has happened in the last five years? The big change, for me, was discovering the Grenzland Discord server: 2022-02-17 Montag in Zürich: Diverse Online Spiele. We even have our own grenzland.club server, these days.
What did we play?
Laurens ran two parallel parties in his Octagon campaign using Classic Traveller (2021–2022). What worked: We had two characters in some sort of death metal band and that was hilarious. What didn't work: We failed to integrate the third player and she soon dropped out. I hope it wasn't our fault but sometimes I still think that maybe it was. Lessons learned: Don't lean into special relationships between characters if that doesn't involve all the players, I guess?
I started running Stonehell (2022–2025). What worked: Halberds & Helmets are my B/X house-rules and they worked well. What didn't work: I tried to keep Stonehell dynamic, with restocking and all that, but it's hard to pull off. It's a lot of work, and if the opposition is tough, the players never get past level 1. If the opposition is lax, what's the point? This dungeon does not have enough treasure (at least in the first three levels). Luckily for the players, I hand out 100 experience points per hit die slain. Lesson learned: The megadungeon needs extra work for restocking, treasure maps to lure people in, and actual treasure placed. I'm not too excited to keep running it. I mean, in theory I haven't stopped. But there have always been other games that I could run or play in so it kind of petered out.
Talking of petering: Peter runs Barrowmaze (2022–2026). He's been kind enough to use Halberds & Helmets, too. The tricky thing is that this megadungeon is full of undead and my houserules don't have clerics. What works: The dungeon remains interesting, with endless rooms and monsters and dangers. What doesn't work: I'm not sure. Perhaps the lack of clerics? In my houserules, magic users and elves need teachers and cannot simply learn spells from spellbooks and scrolls. The idea was that this would automatically produce quest-giving magic-users and elves in the setting. Somehow that hasn't quite worked out. I also think our referee is sometimes exasperated with our bumbling approach to map exploration, skipping treasure, not completely exploring sections, not marking the unexplored sections and therefore never coming back, etc. Lessons learned: Unrelated to the above, the dungeon is interesting in that it requires the players to modify it: walls need to be broken down with sledgehammers, barrow-mounds need to be excavated to create new openings. That's a cool idea.
Frotz ran The Flying Dagger Coast for a few sessions (2022) but it didn't take. We used Halberds & Helmets. What worked: Exploring the coast and meeting people and finding new settlements was very cool. What didn't work: I think at the time I was in a pretty procedural mindset, wanting to count turns and make progress, so talking with the non-player characters about this and that felt a bit like a side-show and I kept pressing on, looking for the dungeon or the monster. Lessons learned: Hopefully, I'm a bit more chill about just talking. That too is the game. Sometimes I just need reminding.
Ludo ran Die Zisterne von Quastenholm (2022–2023) for a while but then I think it was work and kids or both that made him stop. We used Halberds & Helmets. What worked: All of these campaigns ran in the same setting, with the same starting village. Each one of us basically got a direction in which to add stuff. Plopping the cistern of Quastenholm into this shared world was easy. What didn't work: Work-life balance, I guess? It worked for us but not for Ludo, sadly. Lessons learned: Shared campaign settings are cool and don't need a lot of interaction. The mere fact that our characters all meet in the same pub between session (The Wereshark Hideout) and that us players all hung out on the same server was good enough. There were channels for each campaign, but also a shared town channel for in-game banter and a general campaign chat to organise.
Ludo also ran four sessions of Aberrant Reflections for us. We used Halberds & Helmets. What worked: It was an interesting dungeon. What didn't work: Apparently, nobody took notes and nobody wrote reports after the first game. Lessons learned: Without leaving behind records, the games disappear.
I also ran The Giant Giants (2022–2024) for a while. It was the wilderness I had randomly generated using Hex Describe. We used Halberds & Helmets. What worked: There were hexes to explore, enemies to find, friends to make, missions to accomplish. What didn't work: One of the driving players played a semi-evil elf and when I don't like the characters, I have a hard time running a fair game for them. I think from my side, that contributed a lot to the campaign losing steam. Lessons learned: I'm tempted to say that I don't want evil characters in my campaigns.
Kyonshi runs Glimmermark (2023–2026) for us, starting with Dyson's Dungeon, the Keep on the Borderlands and some other stuff and it's very cool. What works: I love his voices for the goblins and the other monsters. What doesn't work: At that point I started realizing that I was playing too many games. If I wanted to, I could run or play four times per week! Oof! Lessons learned: I had to cut back on some of my gaming.
Kyonshi also started running Pirates of Drinax for us but the campaign petered out after a few sessions(2025). We used Mongoose Traveller 2.
Agroschim runs Dolmenwood for us (2024-2026). What works: We use the Dolmenwood rules and they work just fine. What doesn't work: We somehow didn't manage to get a regular schedule up and going. It was supposed to alternate with Arden Vul but that hasn't happened. Lessons learned: I don't know. Be prepared to schedule regular games far in advance and play even if not everybody shows up. Increase the player pool if that's a problem.
Speaking of Arden Vul, I've been running games in a shared Greyhawk campaign. At first I was running adventures of my own devising in Elredd (2022–2023) but then I placed the Arden Vul megadungeon in my province that took over completely (2023–2026). I've had to limit myself to two sessions per month because that dungeon is so big and has so much to offer, it just eats you up. What worked: Arden Vul is great. What didn't work: The Set cultists have lots of Was sticks that each give thousands of experience points in AD&D 1st ed. so now there are quite a few characters around level ten plus or minus one. Lessons learned: I recently started running The Thicket (same region, same author) for low-level characters to bring some more characters into the pool.
I also ran Burning Wheel a handful of times but it didn't take off (2024). I think I had a very specific idea of how to run the game based on the podcast by Judd Karlmann and Sean Nittner, "The Ballad of Bina Janos, the Shoeless Peasant". What worked: We played Burning Wheel and managed to create characters. What didn't work: I wanted to lean into Beliefs, roll dice, experience that drama, and I think my players wanted to explore more, just talk to non-player characters, and so on. Lessons learned: Looking back, I think the lesson to be learned is the same as the one from the Flying Dagger Coast. Hopefully, I'm a bit more chill about just talking. That too is the game.
At the other end of the spectrum, Peter ran OD&D Dungeon Survival Special a competitive old-school escape dungeon (2023–2026) using OD&D! My elf managed to escape but we get a particularly high score, I think. What worked: OD&D and a competitive dungeon! So good. What didn't work: There is limited social aspects around this. How are you going to talk about the dungeon if others might still want to play in it? Lessons learned: Well designed funhouse dungeons are still a good idea. It all depends on how you frame it.
Laurens wanted new dynamics for his local Grenzland campaign and decided to create a Diplomacy-like setup with player-controlled factions. The idea was that this would intersect with the adventures of his local gaming group and provide entertainment for everybody else, too. What worked: It worked! That was the most amazing part of it. What didn't work: I think it was a lot of effort on the referee's part. Some players write long essays, some players wrote a lot but gave no clear instructions, some players made decisions that didn't pull them into the main action. Lessons learned: It's hard. Laurens wrote about it in the Grenzland zine. Look for volumes 5 and 6. The PDFs are free.
Frotz just started running a game of Star Frontiers for us (2026). After one session, there's not much to say, I think.
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