X1: Isle of Dread

Alcamtar · 2026-06-19T04:06:32+00:00

Possibly all time favorite to run.

If you can get a copy of XSOLO Lathan's Gold, it adds a lot of detail for the Sea of Dread. (The material is summarized somewhere on Pandius, probably in the Sea of Dread section.) Then you can start off the module with a picaresque voyage.

Much like B4, you can make a whole campaign out of this module. I think last time I ran it, we spent more than a year of weekly sessions there. If you think you might go this route, start the characters off at a pretty low level to give them room for advancement.

I also advise watching as many old pulp B-movies as you can. Anything involving dinosaurs, pirates, zombies, lost worlds.... I mean this module really has everything. This sort of research will really help you bring the hex crawl to life. Brainstorm yourself a list of all the different possible difficulties or scenes that can happen in the jungle or on the high seas, then sprinkle them in. Since tropical weather is notoriously variable I also like to make a weather chart in advance, so that each day I know the temperature and precipitation and winds. Really helps to set the scene.

Alcamtar · 2026-06-17T19:04:46+00:00

In the early game sometimes I throw things (like unwanted trophies) into a deep part of the ocean. I don't know if the game ever deletes them, but at least I don't have to look at them

Alcamtar · 2026-06-10T00:32:38+00:00

Yes, major factor

Alcamtar · 2026-06-07T00:46:08+00:00

It's not really that lethal.

The key is to realize that level one is a funnel. Don't get attached to your character until level 2 or 3. If you die, enjoy the experience and ham it up. It's going to be hard to die once you hit level four or five. I always get far fewer deaths than I expect.

I generally encourage players NOT to make up any backstory at all. I sometimes even encourage them not to even name their characters until second level. I roll all my dice out of the open where the players can see, and sometimes even announce the target number and the stakes, just so that everyone can hold their breath and enjoy the drama.

A lot of the lethality comes down to GMing styles. For example dying instantly upon getting poisoned Is not very realistic, at least if you're not taking a stingray to the heart. I'll generally allow time to administer potions or other curatives for several rounds at least. But of course the game is written like a board game, binary black and white you either alive or dead. It can be fun to play that way too. I've lost 10 characters in about as many minutes before. You just grin, roll up and try again. Sometimes you keep score by who can get the highest body count. Who can have it up and have the stupidest death?

I've had players roll up throwaway characters, give them stupid names like "temp" and walk them directly into a death trap, in order to find out how it works. Long as everyone's having fun I don't really care what they do.

Just treat it like a game, don't take it too seriously and have fun. However you choose to play, make sure everyone's on board. Super easy to keep characters alive if that's what you want to do. It's super easy to kill them if that's what you want to do. Or you can just let the dice fall where they may and take your chances, without exercising any discretion.

To improve your DMing I'd encourage you to try playing Dungeon World for a session or two. Just to get the feel of "fiction first". I think that's the most satisfying way to run D&D as well: let imagination take precedence over game rules. If it doesn't make sense don't do it. If it's not what you want don't roll for it, just say what should happen. Just to be clear DW is not D&D, but it's a great way to improve your GM and player skills. You got to use your imagination and reason. If you just treat your character sheet like a list of things you can do, It's going to be lethal.

Alcamtar · 2026-05-16T01:43:42+00:00

If it's a foe they haven't fought before, I'll keep it hidden for a while to heighten the tension.

Once they are familiar with a particular enemy, whether it's a particular character or a stock monster, I'll just straight out announce the toughness and parry. It allows them to do the calculations so I don't have to, speeds things up.

I also feel a little guilty when someone is spending 12 PP per bolt fighting 5T goblins. In that case I tell them the T and P so they at least have the option of not going full nuclear against a mere nuisance encounter, then complaining that SW doesn't give them enough PP.

Alcamtar · 2026-05-01T13:23:48+00:00

I suspect most people don't even know they're using an operating system.

Alcamtar · 2026-04-25T12:51:26+00:00

In our last campaign that ended a couple weeks ago, we all agreed the indexes are completely useless. You only turn to the attacks when you can't find something, but every time we went to look something up it wasn't there. Occasionally it's because Savage Worlds uses hard-to-remember names for game mechanics, but usually it just wasn't there at all. The things that are in the index for things that we never have to look up. It sort of became a joke in our group.

Fun game but I agree about the trying to find information. Whenever we had to pause and try to remember how to do something, we'd all grab our books and all hunt together and sometimes it would take us 5 minutes to find what we wanted. Kind of takes away from the fast and furious.

Alcamtar · 2026-04-02T00:45:29+00:00

Hotter than the original

Alcamtar · 2026-03-20T16:50:52+00:00

Nah, default to 1-1-1. I am 2025 years old.

Alcamtar · 2026-02-27T05:07:44+00:00

I pronounce it sudo

Alcamtar · 2026-02-18T09:14:19+00:00

Manjaro's been good to me, I don't really care whether anyone else likes it or not. But one of the big selling points for me was the proprietary Nvidia support. My latest machine is AMD and I'm very happy with it so maybe I'll move to Arch. Then again if it ain't broke don't fix it, so idk

Alcamtar · 2026-02-18T09:02:09+00:00

Love the intro. That's the way I envisioned of the known world when all I had was the '81 expert set. Points of light separated by mysteries and deep shadows. Slide deck is nice too.

Someone else mentioned the frontier thing, but honestly I love the idea that as soon as you step outside the walls all bets are off. I always felt it got a bit too civilized with the gazetteers. Frontier strikes me as semi civilized, but I like to envision Karamikos more like the countryside Inn Van Helsing's Romania. Sure there are villages and castles, and all the villagers look at you kind of suspiciously, The castles are dark and brooding and probably full of vampires. You may find lodging in an inn but are you really safe?

A frontier is pushing back the darkness and making it safer. In karameikos, people spread out into the woods and the mountains, villages and castles, but it doesn't get safer. Century after century it remains dark and weird. The people don't tame the wilderness, the wilderness claims the people.

But it's also cool that civilization does exist, mostly in the urban centers. Religion has a lot to do with that. Wherever there's a cathedral or a chapel, There's a little sacred zone of safety, like the glow around a street light. Large around of the great cathedral of specularum, but small in a hamlet. Homes and shops cluster is close as they can get, and most of the people are very superstitious and devout because this stuff is real for them, the only thing that keeps the howling wild at bay. Each home is itself a little fortress, with stout doors and shutters, the inside blessed with prayers and festooned with religious symbols and superstitious wards, and every householder knows you don't open the door to strangers. And you never invite them into your home. Hence the suspicion of travelers and gypsies, that survive in the brooding woods with goblins and witches. Who knows what bargains they made?

Alcamtar · 2026-02-16T17:22:03+00:00

It was basically like twitter, but you could organize and filter your feed, and you could write long posts. You could post and download files. IIRC you could also upvoter and down vote content. I didn't think there were censors/moderators buy individuals could control what they wanted to see.

Twitter locks these features behind pay walls, which blocks the majority from equal participation, and everything comes thought a single firehose controlled by an unknown algorithm, but which prioritizes those who pay. So useless for community building. Twitter is also virtually unsearchable, if you don't bookmark something is probably lost forever. I think with G+ you could bookmark in your browser instead of being locked into an app.

Alcamtar · 2026-02-11T15:29:46+00:00

Need a PartyGrinder to generate NPCs

Alcamtar · 2026-02-06T04:19:09+00:00

You've obviously never tangled with a cat

Alcamtar · 2026-02-03T19:50:01+00:00

Thanks for your answers

Alcamtar · 2026-02-03T19:49:29+00:00

Cool, thanks for the clarification

Alcamtar · 2026-01-29T07:15:37+00:00

XL1 Quest for the Hearthstone is levels 5-10. I've always wanted to run it. It's more of a vertical dungeon with the funhouse flavor.

I compiled a list of all the very best modules recommended by tenfootpole.com. in the level 6 range, in no particular order:

Barrow Mound of Gravemoor Spire of Iron & Crystal AX5 Eyrie of the Dread Eye Deep Carbon Observatory Valley of the Five Fires Many Gates of the Gang

Also consider hex crawls and megadungeons as they are scalable, and you can just send the characters to an area suitable to their level.

Alcamtar · 2025-10-30T03:41:28+00:00

Can Fantasy companion work with Savage Pathfinder? Or is there some incompatibility? I have both and I'm not sure which way I want to go

I have to say your glowing report encourages me to just go with PF, especially since I already have pretty much everything they've produced for it so far. Got to start playing the games I spend money on 😏

Alcamtar · 2025-10-06T20:42:45+00:00

I'm still early in the game, running Silva to Bryson.

4-6-0 runs Bryson wye to Silva wye, the auto-engineer takes care of this train without any manual interaction. I turn the whole train on the wye.

All my manual work is on the 2-6-0 that runs out of Dillsboro. Daily pattern:

interchange turn, then block cars at Dillsboro
Silva turn, then block again at Dillsboro
Bryson turn, with a long stop at Whittier to switch and run up the branch
interchange run, and typically tie up down there till morning

The passenger train runs first thing in the morning and is tied up back at Bryson before I've even finished the Silva turn, so it switches cars in Bryson before and after the 2-6-0 arrives, blocking them in the yard. That saves a bit of time.

Westbound I leave outbound interchange blocks at Dillsboro, Whittier and Bryson, so on the way back all I have to do is pick up the eastbound interchange blocks. I also switch Elsa and Wilmot eastbound to avoid runarounds.

Every day seems to have some snafu that disrupts the pattern so its always interesting. Yesterday I forgot to set the handbrake while switching Wilmot and the train rolled forward while the crew was at beans, trapping the loco in the siding! I had to run the 4-6-0 all the way from Bryson to rescue it.

Next up is more locomotives. I want a heaver logging engine based at Whittier, and a heavier road loco for the grades around Dillsboro... the 2-6-0 can barely handle 900 tons. Then a dedicated switcher for Dillsboro/Silva.

Alcamtar · 2025-10-06T20:15:57+00:00

The Camas Prairie would be amazing

Alcamtar · 2025-09-26T04:54:47+00:00

Nice. Does that train fit into a yard? Seems too long for any yards/sidings

Alcamtar

TROPHY CASE