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Monday, December 18
OSR Wilderness Fundraiser Delivers, again (cont.)
Wednesday, October 25
Super Simple Death Save for Dungeons & Dragons
When the PC reaches zero Hit Points, instead of death they may choose to reduce their Hit Die to the next smaller die size. Only have a d4 Hit Die? To bad, no death save for you.
This means Magic-User and Thief class do not get a death save, they follow the standard zero Hit Points and you are dead. Outside of the Fighter, all other classes have a d6 Hit Die, so these classes get to cheat death once. With the Fighter having a d8 Hit Die they get to save from death twice.It should be noted the save is automatic, there is no roll to make. And just to be clear, this does mean, moving forward, the PC rolls this new lower die for all additional levels reached.
Wednesday, September 14
Madison Hut Received BFRPG
It was wet, it was steep, it was a typical hike in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I started out like this,
under some sun and 80% humidity on the valley floor. And then you end up here,
After the slog I collapsed in my bunk at Madison Springs Hut and surveyed the map for on the morrow we would assault the summit of Mount Washington.
Thursday, July 28
That Rule in B/X I Missed...
I'm sure there are a couple of more I could find, but this one, this one I can testify I never internalized, or had it come up in play, hmmm. Anyways, it is a good optional rule and I am writing it down here so now another piece of B/X lore is firmly cemented into the space in my brain labeled "If it isn't about ttrpg's I'm not interested".
It is on page B25 and it goes like this; "ATTACKS ON 'UNHITTABLE' CREATURES (OPTION): Some creatures can be hit only by silvered or magic weapons. The DM may want to allow two other kinds of attacks to hit such creatures. First, attacks by other 'unhittable' creatures may be allowed (for example, a lycanthrope could attack a wight). Second, attacks by monsters with more than four hit dice may be allowed (an owlbear could attack a wererat)."Seems reasonable to me. I like it. I also like being reminded the clarity of Tom's language usage in writing the Basic Rules. Many rules can be written with some running of the mouth by an author. Tom Moldvay commits none of these sins. I still use this book as a style guide when considering the words I'm using when writing rules.
Thursday, January 14
New B/X Class, the Scumbag
Thursday, September 10
Is the Cleric spell Protection from Evil too powerful?
This question, one of many from Mark, regular gamer and commentator on all things Vanishing Tower (VTP), is definitely an issue I put in the undecided box. And is a spell, much like Read Magic, which I struggle with cap-stoning with a definite and unequivocal opinion. The tendency for myself and players is towards specificity. The nebulous definition of “Evil” in a variety of fantasy relevant context is rendered more apprehensible with hard walls. Hard and fast definitions. “Elves are good, Orcs are evil.” Black is back and white is just alright with me, just alriiiight, oh yeaaah.
But my game world, my fantasy campaigns tend to begin with
the question, or nature, of evil relatively unanswered. Outside of societal norms
defining moral and its opposite, evil, the nature of a roleplaying game is to
have these big questions answered in play. And so is why everyone wants to know
the answer to these type of questions before play, or when they come up.
So my answer is the bullshit one, it depends. What is
the right call at the moment? Everything in a roleplaying game is case and or
context dependent. Some one has to decide what is or isn’t evil in the game
world and that job ultimately ends in the DM’s lap. My best efforts have come
to a couple of “best practices” I’ve adopted for myself. Have the player define
what their god considers good and evil. Accept it and incorporate their ideas
into the pantheon developing. And when I say accept it I don’t mean make it all
true. Just be super-mindful of it and you can be prepared for when you have
something they believe their spell would protect them, and it doesn’t! If they
really start to push on it sucking ask them if they have considered their god
may not be correct in all things? Maybe their god is fucking with them? Maybe
their god lied about this subject? It makes sense to attack, or frame, the PfE
spell with less specificity on the front end because it preserves the
fascinating feature of emergent play.
Saturday, September 5
A Caller Questions the Conversion Guides; previous post addendum.
Monday, August 31
Using 1e ADnD modules in your own game world...
I did not intentionally start the new campaign of Rom’Myr so as to stuff as many 1e AD&D modules as I have into it, but once I reviewed S4 I wanted to try. The Rom’Myr campaign is a homebrewed Dying Earth setting offering the trappings and tropes of an original Vancian city, and the colorful denizens to be found therein. I started with Jack’s own stories of his fabled dying earth. My cardinal rule of source and inspiration of a genre is to reread the original material. By and large a ttrpg setting is devoid of the magic and juice the original creator transfused into their work. Carcosa would be an exception here, but the author and setting writer are one in the same. An organic kernel of fucked-upness which birthed a nation. So, I was quite convinced when reading S4 it was utterly the most Vancian module Gygax wrote. I needed a sharp range of mountains to hem-in the sword and sandle city of Valla’Tair, the campaigns home starting point. S4 is on my shelf so I was eager to make it “work”. The nuanced harmony with Vance’s stories S4 has made hacking the module a simple process. Many, many things of the original module were left intact.
Remember in high school when the
DnD adventure recently purchased was going to be the adventure to be played
that weekend? That is how I remember it all. The only elements of a traditional
DnD campaign would be using the same character for each adventure, giving the character
survived the previous one. Rather unsatisfying considering the true potential
of the medium. Hence the idea was born, and gauntlet thrown down. I became
determined to weave as many classic DnD adventure modules into the campaign as I
could! Not in any slap-on, haphazard methods of old, but only when the module “fit”.
I was betting the best use of this material was exactly how the authors said to
use it; make it your own! Now this does require re-skinning the mod. Changing
names, replacing monsters with your own, tossing out material that doesn’t work
for you, this will need to be done to slot correctly into your game. But
if you have chosen wisely then the work is brisk and intuitive.
Here are the AD&D modules (among many, many other sources) used so far:
S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
T1 Village of Hommlet
X2 Castle Amber
C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan
B3 Palace of the Silver Princess
WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
The early DnD modules, or at
least the ones I have used, are masterful tools which willingly support
whatever the DM is attempting to build with their players. I subscribe to the
notion that other people’s ideas are intrinsic to a successful campaign world (also
known as a “living world”). These different (they don’t always need to be good,
I learn from bad) ideas and adventures help link my best ideas together. There
wasn’t any connection by players of the classic modules they are battling
through. This is because the players
were pursuing their goals, their advisories, the consequences of their actions.
Enough slight-of-hand achieved so Tsojcanth is the Yonni’Hor mountains and the
mysteries lying within. Tomoachan is the lower catacombs and sewers hiding the
Cult of Sleep. Castle Amber and Hommlet is the home of the eccentric Ansulex
family and their strange studies, werewolves in thrall to the Archbishop are
stalking rebels and radicals, and the whimsical Palace of the Silver Prince is
lost to the macabre house of the vampiric Knight of Gore. I don’t think I would
have thought of a martial order of ghouls if it wasn’t for using B3. That dinner
party was the shit!
I know Gygax and others tied
their unique creations, eventually, to an official setting. Just like coming up
with unique traps and challenges weekly is hard work, having all the answers to
the player’s questions is unrealistic. Having some fleshed-out pantheon
provided, or collection of kingdoms presented, saves time creating buildings,
towns, and secret labs. There is only so much time in the day. But I’ll say you
have to have your own unique campaign world to give a good game a chance. You must
have horizons you are passionate to reveal. A DM is on the right track world
building when prewritten adventures are easily adapted to situations at hand.
One, they are good. They are good spaces to move around in, there are ample
examples of what threats can be encountered there, major NPCs to make your own
supervillains out of. I’ve hung the best, weirdest stuff I can on these old
modules and I’ll tell you, it isn’t nothing they haven’t seen or can’t help
make better.
Tuesday, February 25
A Present of, and a Review of Castle Xyntillian by Gabor Lux
Sunday, January 12
Death in Rom'Myr
Tuesday, December 10
My Rom'Myr Campaign
Saturday, November 30
The DM’s Guide is System Neutral
Thursday, April 11
AD&D armor types for Ascending Armor Class
For the record it isn’t that I was opposed to additional armor types. I was opposed to taking the time to shake out the details during game time. Now I have had the time. To assign Armor Class values at least. Still haven’t settled on price yet. I don’t want to take the prices right out of the book because in Rom’Myr your cost for armor is substantially higher than traditional OSR equipment lists.
Saturday, December 2
Additional OSR Spells for Clerics of Odxit
Friday, August 25
Savage Satisfaction in Indianapolis
I swept the booth crew of creators for my treasured celebrity signatures. Raggi, Zak, Patrick Stuart. I got to meet Jacob Hurst and listen to his wonderful pitch on his books. My budget was consciously constrained so Qelong was my “this is such a deal” buy and I had to make a decision between the badass LotFP tee or the Rules & Magic book. I went with the book. The only person I didn't see at the booth was Jez Gordon. But this was okay because I still hadn't purchased a silver sharpie. LotFP goods have many pages in black.
I stumbled back to the Ultra-Pro booth trying to grasp it wasn't morning anymore. My flight didn't leave till 6 the next morning, but I still had to make it to the hotel and put myself together before then. Sleep, while desired would be hard to have. I knew I would be electrified by recent events and my mind would bubble and boil till I flat out shut down.