OSE Game Prep, part 2

Looking through a book a bought a while ago, the Oracle Special Edition #1 & 2, I'm hoping I can run the low-level mine adventure in that book (which I've had for at least a couple of years now I think!) I've placed the salt mines several miles south in the mountains, and we now have a name, Crevice Creek, for the town. 

Though in reading through the creatures in the adventure, they are not what I consider low-level. Of course, this is originally written for 5E, and the mechanics there are designed to let the players do way too much without much in the way of risk. I'll probably scale down the threats a bit, other than the natural threats of mine exploration. And I actually have the Dwarf mine set from Archon - sadly this will be remote so I can't bring out those dungeon tiles. On the bright side, we figured out Owlbear.Rodeo's fog of war, so I should be able to load the maps there and show only the stuff they can see. Which is also why I like getting the books and PDFs :)

Of course, I'll be dropping off the characters in Windemere Crossing, tired from being in a caravan the last couple of weeks. But it will have given the characters some time to get to know each other so we're not starting at a fight in a tavern!

Of course, there should be some possibility of adventure in Windemere Crossing. It is a small town, though ripe with strangers passing through with the caravans. I am hoping that I can make the town more than just a set of dry descriptions. Knowing how I freeze up despite over-preparation, I'll have to have good notes actually handy. I just need to figure out what those good notes are!

I'm also going to try & give a bit more life the NPCs. Which is difficult for me: I can barely speak English half the time it feels like (I actually had speech therapy for a long time, so I tend to be very self-conscious about that) and so voices and accents are not a real option for me. What I'll try & do is either print or write up cards so I have them in front of me, and hopefully note some personality to that character. And maybe the stats (both TFT & OSE) on the back in case those are needed. This is why I have to prep in advance. One of these days I'll be more relaxed. At least I hope! Though I was actually relaxed in our Brass Rings game, which had little prep as it was basically a pick-up game when the GM could not be there a couple of weeks. We will return to that at some point (and you can search for Brass Rings on the word link thing to the right).

So: the rest of the prep is really creating some NPC cards that will print front & back so I have them ready, get the creatures tuned for a group of 3 2nd level characters that will not survive a 75 HP creature that does 1d8+4 damage! One hit and they are dead. I'll make sure that they have some healing draughts before they head in.

I do have a player hand-out that I think may work, just need to work that into the game at some point.

Which also gives them a map. Though I'll have to recreate this map in a format I can upload & use.

And now to downgrade the guardian:

As this guy will wipe out that party. Though truth be told, I need to also start figuring out how to play better with hirelings and all that. The game we're playing now, my Goblin Fugh has 6 guards/hirelings. I've not used them at all as I keep thinking it is the GM's role to do so. But I can have them do things for Fugh. Just not used to that even though that is fairly traditional. I don't recall hirelings in my college days, and Traveller NPCs tend to be engineers and ship crew rather than party members. I do have at least a picture of Fugh's group, just need to talk with the GM to add the character quirks and things to make them live.