You can be squishy-washy in Ocean D&D! A sort of play report.
Note: this one of several play reports about this session. See also Weird Writer and Against the Cult of the Commodity .
I was nosing around my favorite Discord server, OSR (a.k.a. Gay Beholder server), and I saw a pick-up game in the next ten minutes.
OD&D. Not that OD&D, Ocean D&D! I'd been hearing about this series of games, and the timing was pretty good for me so I pinged the DM. Next thing I know I'm Bubba, The Crab!
I got to play with some server members I'd just texted with, Manticore, the Mantis Shrimp – Weird Writer, Citlali, the Axolotl – Mirabilis, Amby, the Axolotl – Kirko, Painter, the Octopus – nayba.
Our referee/DM – spuk/warenunförmig, (the creator of Ocean D&D).
For the next hour to hour and a half I'm a member of a undersea reef community that is exploring hexes and charting them. We crossed at least five new hexes, and charted them (for the x.p. [Experience points toward improvement]). We also encountered 10 stingrays, 5 Dolphins (Panic!), 1 Great White Shark (Panic!!), a tower of Axolotls (Wizards! Panic!!!), and then we were chewed to bits by a pack of Reef Sharks! (We all died, I died [in my mind helplessly, ignominiously waving my claws]).
After the TPK (Total Party Kill), we took five minutes. Everyone who wanted to continue returned for part two.
The Great Beast, Manticore’s sister, Weird Writer; B.B., the Axolotl (myself); Spaniolo, the Clownfish (Kirko); and Pincher, the Stomapod (nayba). And much rejoicing was had!
Until we got to the adventure. We tried to rescue our reef-mates bodies (our dead bodies, as of minutes ago) for the experience points, and we ran into the same damn pack of Reef Sharks!
The Great Beast (W.W. as a Mantis Shrimp) used her character's massive Charisma (a natural 17 on 3d6!) to Con the Reef Sharks into believing that we were taking them to a reef to rule. ****ing Brilliant!
In actual fact we were going to the Dungeon of Nightmare Light! The Great Beast conned the Reef Sharks into the dungeon, and they were almost all entranced by the Nightmare Light. Our group all made the first saving roll against the Nightmare Light, but I alone failed the second.
I was drawn toward the Nightmare Light (that was a large Angler fish's lure), and though I was not eaten (yet) I was trapped in the dungeon. I had a lot of fun whispering for my comrades to join me in the light before they left me.
The group found two treasures, sparkling nanites (that grant magic spells), and a rhizome which they consumed. They encountered Stomatopods who were also entranced by the Nightmare Light, and lured them into meeting the Reef Sharks outside the dungeon guarding the original entrance/exit. The guard Reef Sharks were also lured into the dungeon to see the light. Finally the party left the dungeon for home, with our (former, dead) bodies in tow.
What I took away from this adventure: a) spuk/warenunförmig is brilliant for coming up with Ocean D&D, it's a whole different flavor of D&D (he's also an excellent DM/referee); b) always have a good face/con artist in the party (this is as much a player skill as anything), Weird Writer was great in that role; c) luck only takes you so far, we were actually incredibly lucky to have had as few violent encounters as we did. Our fatal one was basically inescapable. I don't know if Player skill would have helped, it was really down to some rolls.
Massive thanks, first to our referee/DM – Spuk/Warenunförmig, (the creator of Ocean D&D); second to Weird Writer for her article (see the first paragraph for a link) without which this article would never have been written; then to all my other fellow players, Mirabilis, Kirko, nayba for an excellent time. Everybody rocked the house on this game! I've never had so much fun dying.