Yirith: Campaign Retrospective, Part A

The Yirith: Age of Low Adventure campaign ran almost weekly from 9 August, 2025 through 21 March, 2026, concluding with the twenty-seventh session.

Campaign Goals

• So many good modules, and I bought ‘em. (Also, some not great ones.) Put ‘em in a sandbox, make a cool world like this. Let the players experience ‘em. 
• Play leaning into sword and sorcery, pushing myself to be a little more gonzo. Try a system that supports that. No elfs, dwarfs, dragons, or D&D humanoids.
• Succeed at the challenge of running an open-table sandbox, stitching together the modules.

Here’s what I wrote to the invited: “The campaign should be somewhat variable in format session-to-session, with dungeon-crawls, city intrigue episodes, wilderness treks, and social encounters, depending on what the players or their avatars push for. Hopefully a decent set of stories emerges from this picaresque, with some continuity, without being overly troubled by foolish consistencies, as pulp-era authors seemingly weren't.”

Actual session types, approximately: vibe-setting, system-learning dungeon plunge (1 session); sewer-crawls & city intrigue (5); temple explorations & cult fights (6); hex-crawl (1); social explorations & negotiations (2.5); village defense & dungeon raids (4); surreal dungeon crawls (6.5).

Setting, Themes, & Vibes

My invitation included the following scene-setting: ‘Between the epochs of long ago, when the clouds screamed with Angelim and floated with Leviathan, the Caecilian Colossus strode the land with cities ‘neath its feet, and the Jade Empire of the Serpent-Men was cast into ruin, and before the Immortal City passed unto death, the Fourth Moon fell from the sky, and the Nameless God was Named, there was an age of Yirith yet undreamed of, an age of Low Adventure. … The theme will be sword & sorcery, familiar D&D world stuff for sure, but with an emphasis on sinister cults and jewel heists, frog gods and serpent men, thieves’ guilds and dark sorcery, Law and Chaos, mighty thews and unfathomable beasts, sweaty jungles and desolate wastes. … The particular “Appendix N” for this campaign includes: “Tower of the Elephant” and “Lean Times in Lankhmar”; Clark Ashton Smith with the solidity dialed up and Jack Vance with the goofiness dialed down; Orientalist oil paintings and Frank Frazzeta’s art; the first Conan film and some scenes from Bakshi’s fantasy animations; the Thieves’ World series and the introduction to Nifft the Lean; Gentlemen of the Road and Between Two Fires; the Hound & Arya’s fight for chickens and the violent bits of The Northman; Egil & Nix, Logen Ninefingers & Ferro Maljinn, and the black-tongued thief & Locke Lamora. I will probably straight up “borrow” many of the geographical and cultural names from these works, maybe even lift mini-plots wholesale if they seem good game-material.’

Major themes that actually played out: reptilian & amphibian threats, insect infestation, diseases & cures (& drug use), organized crime & cults, death, and eggs & pregnancies (& births). 

System

As my Advanced OSE Xyntillan campaign was ending, I polled players in my orbit. A number (none of whom had played it) were keen on Black Sword Hack, as was I. It seemed obvious for the setting.

House Rules

• Regular combats were too long (rough math is most beginning BSH characters do around two points of damage per attack, vs. monsters beginning with 5 hp, rising to 10 hp soon after, with not so many options for characters scaling up). So, I made hits more likely with inflated stats. I reduced the effectiveness of shields (gave enemies disadvantage on damage), so that they wouldn’t be a “must have.” Enemies rolled dice for damage, rather than dealing fixed amounts. 
• I rewrote several of the backgrounds to improve the desirability of some, although two of my players generated their backgrounds randomly. Some flavor was changed to fit Yirith. I speeded leveling by ruling experience gained through sessions survived (2 to make level 2, 5 to make level 3, &c.).
• I added a slot system for encumbrance, the number the average of STR and CON scores, plus six ready-slots including two hands, and the remaining “pack” requiring dig out time (equipped armor could be in the pack).

Numbers

The campaign stretched 33 weeks with 27 sessions held, including a session zero. 

There were probably 4 cancelled scheduled sessions, and a few weeks that I didn’t offer to host, mainly because of American holidays. The campaign was run online in Roll20 and Discord, as the players and GM are in greater Philadelphia, Toronto, Indiana and Iowa, North Carolina, and Australia. (Invites additionally went out to Virginians and a Milwaukeean.) 

Sixteen players were invited initially and six joined the campaign. One played 1 session (the first) and dropped out. One played 2 sessions, (1st & 3rd) and dropped out. The other four played 25, 17 (joined at 5th), 15, and 13 (dropped after 16th) sessions. The average attendance was 2.8 players per session. I didn’t hold a session if only one player could make it. Attendance after session 20 was 2.2 players per.

There were 9 PCs rolled; 3 were killed along the way. The lone TPK was one of the duo sessions. There was, however, also a TPU (total party unconsciousness), where three PCs went to 0 hp, and were captured by a cult (who very much did not want to kill them). One character at the conclusion of the campaign was fifth level, and the other three still in were fourth level (two replacement characters included).Those killed died at third or fourth level.

My Favorite Moments, Fiction-Wise

• Player reactions to the numerous eggs and pregnancies
• A PC drinking sewage from a goblet
• The creation of the Ink Knight (tripping a black boiling ink trap)
• A PC’s inner and outer bones (and the concern of the Grinding Nightmare’s request)
• The panicky murder of a harmless old woman
• The pledge to the meat-sphere
• The beach escape from the oblivion cult
• Dinner with a cannibal
• The long conversation with the ersatz Amazons
• The escape from the space-worm’s gut
• The snooty Orangutan’s disgust with goatsmilk drinking
• The nudities at Quiet Lake
• Rescuing the wrong woman
• Blasting apart the Bachelor with a firelance   

Modules Deployed (in order of play)

• Vault of Yigthrahotep (small portion deeply rewritten)
• Well of Frogs
• The Sunbathers
• Bad Myrmidon (rewritten substantially)
• Agon 2: Kryos
• Parallel Dungeons
• Quiet Lake (Reach of the Roach God)
• Lorn Song of the Bachelor
• Upper Heleng

Published Tables Used for World “Fill”

• &&&&&Treasure
• Harthbreaker
• Heavenly Bodies (art)
• Hyperborea (name lists)
• Kal-Arath Weather
• Lesser Key to the Celestial Legion
• Nocturnal Tables
• Swords of the Serpentine
• Tales of Argosa
• Thieves’ World (Chaosium)
• Weird North
• World of Xoth for Low Fantasy Gaming
• A Wicked Age
• Yoon-Suin

Modules partly worked up for play but unused

• Curse of the Maggot God
• Deluge at Drizzle Distillery
• Gardens of Ynn
• Grave Matters 
• Jewels of the Carnifex (altered)
• Lounge Temple of Asvraki (altered substantially)
• Spider God’s Bride (reduced substantially)
• Temple of Lies
• Tomb of the Bull King (reduced)

Modules Rumored (so at least a read-through on my part), unpursued by players

• Acid Metal Howl
• Agon: Soros & Ion
• Anthropophagi of Xambaala
• Battle for Carrion Vale
• Carcassay Titan Rat
• City of Tears
• City of Vultures
• Cloister of the Frog-God
• Darkness at Nekemte
• Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess
• Grave Titan Harvest
• The Grotesques’ Grotto
• Hyena Child
• Isle of the Sea-King
• Lions of Tel-Arn
• Pestilence at Halith Varn
• Qelong
• Queen of the Black Coast (Hyborian Adventures)
• Rats of Ilthmar
• Red Prophet Rising
• Scourge of the Tikbalang
• Shadows of Forgotten Kings
• Song of the Beast Gods
• Spider God’s Temple (Reach of the Roach God)
• Stirring the Hornet’s Nest at Het Thamsya
• Temple of 1000 Swords
• Undying Sea

The first version--more were added