My Life As A Gamer: Running The Domain Rules

Late last night, on a lark, I pulled out my Dungeon Master's Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition. I decided to generate a small wilderness area just to see how it all works together, acting as if it were a new area for a Fighter to conquer and tame.

Here's the set-up:

• This is a temperate coastal area. The center hex is a Forest Hill area. The bottom three hexes are Water (Sea) hexes. The top three, from left to right, are a Forested Pond, a Forest, and another Forested Pond.
• The center hex has a ruined fortress--a large shell keep--in it with a monster inside. We can presume that it is atop the biggest hill in the area.
• One of the ponds has a single dwelling in it. The other has a village. The forest between them is uninhabited.
• The Sea hexes are uninhabited.

We now have some idea of what this area was before Patrons or PCs arrive. This looks to be an area with a fortified lighthouse, maybe with a natural anchor that had some development before everything fell apart. We'll set that aside for now. Now we see what is in each hex.

• Center Hex: Four Hill Giants use the shell keep as a lair. They have three Giant Lizards as guards.
• Top Left Hex: A dozen Orcs encamped at the single dwelling, which I rule is at the pond.
• Top Middle Hex: A stag beetle lair, containing 8 of them, in hidden in this dense forest area.
• Top Right Hex: An ogre band encamped in a ruined village, built at the other pond.
• Sea Hexes: Empty.

That's a lot of potent monsters and animals. I take the liberty of generating treasure troves for each monster lair, which generates a lot of coin and no few gems but little in the way of magic items- yet those items are notable. (A +2 longsword, a +2 spear, and a suit of +1 plate mail as well as some class-specific potions.)

For a Name Level Fighter, only the Giants are a serious threat and the Ogres are a significant threat. The Orcs are trivial, and the Stag Beetles can be cleared out on the way from the Orcs to the Ogres. With his Henchmen and hirelings--a small army at this point--at his command, he easily eliminates the Orcs. The Ogres need only be hemmed in and driven to the Fighter and his bodyguard to guarantee victory, and the Stag Beetles are fine hunting once discovered. We'll have him start by making landfall from the sea on the Orc-held hex then, and let him sweep across the top three.

That leaves the Hill Giants, which is the only encounter suitable for more detailed adjudication.

First, this is what a Shell Keep looks like. (This one pictured should count as a Large Shell Keep.)

In other words, there are only two questions to consider: "Can the Giants stand on the walls?" and "Can the Giants enter without climbing over or smashing the walls?" Given that this is a deserted and ruined keep, I rule "Yes" and "No (already smashed)" respectively.

The Fighter, at this time, pursues a similar containment strategy. Most of his men are 0-level men-at-arms. Lower-level Fighter subordinates are put in command of them to circumventilate the Keep, as Gaius Julius Caesar did to Vercingetorix at Alesia; this needs be no more than a wood pallisade and a ditch about a man's height in depth and about as long across, with wooden stakes put into the bottom and sides, and out of range of the Giants' hurling- all doable in a day or so.

Meanwhile, the Fighter and his levelled Henchmen and bodyguard make for the breach and prepare an ambush. When the pallisde and ditch are finished, the Giants take notice; half of them sally forth from the breech, where the Fighter ambushes them. With full surprise, the Fighter and his men cut both down before they can react. (8HD+1-2= 37HP on average, doable with a Name Level Fighter and leveled subordinates to pull off.) The other two mount the walls and toss boulders, but (go figure) are out of range. The Fighter and his men now move in, where they have to deal with the Giant Lizards, buying the remaining Giants time to react.

However, their Morale breaks when the Lizards are cut down; the Fighter's men take some wounds, but are still in the fight. The Giants attempt to run for it, but (as planned) are tripped up on the ditches and get piked and shot to death by massed men-at-arms.

The Fighter is victorious. He has conquered the immediate area, and now a new Domain can be established. He lights a signal fire, and the rest of his adventuring companions now join him as they make landfall from the sea.

This is the wargame feel that you're supposed to be enjoying when you play properly, and while I'm using a Name Level (9th) Fighter to illustrate it, you can start on this right away if your character has the means to do so.