Return of Strategy Games Club

Caves of Chaos by Michael Komarck

Tomorrow marks the return of my after-school Strategy Games Club.  Open to students grades 6-8, we are usually joined by a number of club alumni from the nearby high school as well.

In addition to the usual fare (Settlers of Catan, Small World, Risk, and Shadows Over Camelot) this year's lineup will include two new additions of note:

• My older daughter, now in 6th grade, will be running an extended B/X wilderness sandbox D&D campaign based entirely on classic TSR module X1 The Isle of Dread.  This setting is just packed with potential: dinosaur hunts, a ruined temple, lost races, pirates, pearl beds, and the zombie master!  She's run around nine sessions on the island before, and she's comfortable with the setting, so her growth will come in the areas of group management (she observed just today that middle schoolers are more demanding as players than high school students) and engaging, evocative descriptions.  Both of these will come through practice of course.

• Once my daughter's table is full, I'll be offering Dwimmermount, run with 5th edition D&D.  Yes, that cross-version heresy will doubtless cost me my OSR card, but turning new roleplayers on to a version of the game that is both in print and which can be found in retail stores like Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million just feels like a better way to go.  I'll be adapting on the fly, so there will be some rough patches, but aside from 30 years experience with mixing versions I've also got this going for me ... that's right ... Dwimmermount coil-bound, baby!  No grappling with $75 worth of "looks pretty on a shelf" ... Imma gonna use this sucker ... which means it's going to need to lay flat on the table just like my copy of Chainmail.

It'll be good to get back into the swing and get a third RPG campaign up and running again.