One DM. Two very different games.
This week I had the pleasure of playing twice, once in a long running Harn world Campaign game, and the other in a Arduin OD&D (Original D&D) game set in...a Dungeon (for one session). Both sessions were Dungeon Mastered by Jay_zer0 https://zer0.bearblog.dev/ .
The first session, a Harn world campaign was called Shifty Louts (see https://zer0.bearblog.dev/shifty-louts-session-45-the-snake-the-hawk/ ), I was Robert Thee Acrobat. My class was, well Acrobat (I thought that was cool). Little details sprinkled throughout the session remind us we were in a very coherent, detailed world setting. Jay_zer0 informed us at one point how many different tribes of barbarians there were, and we had to figure small details like drinking water (and watered beer) for a trip. We had two encounters in two real time hours, on the road. The first was memorable because it was another little piece of Harn. A long, feathered serpent with hypnotic abilities. While I cowered, two barbarians killed it. Our next encounter, a giant hawk was memorable because it killed one of our wagon horses. Normally this is kind of glossed over in the games I've played in, but here the horse was named by the group, Jevell. Everything in this game had small, but distinct details.
The second game of the week was called Arduin Arcade Session #2 - The Howling Tower! (see https://zer0.bearblog.dev/arduin-dungeon-2-the-howling-tower-pickup-game-session-report/ & for session #2 https://zer0.bearblog.dev/arduin-arcade-session-2-the-howling-tower/ ). I don't know how much of the original Jay_zer0 decided to keep for this particular session. He did say in his play session report on our session that he prepared the encounter's ahead of time. Jay_zer0 choose to use a modified version of OD&D for this game. (The first three Arduin Grimoires that David A. Hargrave got published were his collection of OD&D notes and House rules [many based on his correspondence with other gamers in Alarums and Excursions, or other APA's of the time]). In this adventure I got the chance to play two separate characters, by dying really quickly!
David A. Hargrave made some (literal) killer Dungeons in his time, and Jay_zer0 did a great job in delivering that experience. For this game session Jay_zer0 had me generate a new character as soon as I met my untimely demise. Goodbye Maztaka aPistola, human Armsman! Hello Grennigore, The Centaur Mage! This two hour session was short, sweet, and action packed. I wasn't the only Player who died either, I was just lucky enough (!) to have died early and fast. Another player was killed by...a Trap on our way out of the Dungeon. Again in great homage to David Hargrave many people managed to roll critical hits (natural 20's), and critical misses (natural 1's). Jay_zer0 used the Classic Arduin tables for each respectively. One fellow cut off most of his own butt. It made for an exciting, fast paced game. Jay emphasized the weird, over the top, feeling of the Arduin setting. Details not to be missed were the Bizarre phasing teddy bear-like creatures, the mention of Vroats (thankfully we never ran into them), the Deodanth (Undead, star-faring Drow) PC in our group, and the constantly changing level (one?) interior architecture and dungeon ecology. I was pretty sure we would all die at several points.
Each game was enjoyable, and each was distinctly different. Jay_zer0 really managed to show-case the unique features of each game setting. Harn's incredibly detailed setting as a Campaign (Sandbox?), and Arduin's Gonzo, over the top, jump the Air Shark, Dungeon.
Shout out big time to Jay_zer0 for running these sessions! And to all my fellow players in each session, especially Arduin Arcade #2!