Prank

/ jstater / 1 Comment

I’ve been quite busy with real life the last week – you might note that I didn’t get a Dragon By Dragon out last Sunday – so I’m forcing myself to stop and write this.

PRANK
Level: Illusionist 1
Range: Close (30′, 50′ for gnomes)
Duration: See below

The prank spell permits the illusionist to carry out one of several classic pranks, as follows.

Blacken: Causes a black ring to appear around a person’s eye when using a spyglass
Blat: Causes a roar of flatulence to blast out when somebody within range sits down

Burn: Causes a bite of food to become extremely spicy; the victim must pass a Fortitude savinv throw or spit the food out, drink lots of water and generally carry on for a round

Dribble: Causes liquid to dribble from a vessel on a person’s shirt

Kick: Causes an illusory “kick me” sign to appear on the person’s back; the first person (other than the spellcaster) who sees it must pass a Will saving throw to resist the temptation

Mark: Causes an illusory mustache and goatee (and perhaps blackens a tooth) on the target

Slip: Causes a banana to appear under a person’s feet (Reflex save to avoid slipping)

Sneeze: Causes the victim to break into a sneezing fit for 1 round if they fail a Fortitude save

Squirt: Permits any flower within range to squirt a person in the face with water

Tinkle: Causes a sensation of warm water on a sleeping person’s hand; they must pass a Fortitude save or have an accident

Some effects are instantaneous. Otherwise, the prank lasts for 1 minute per spellcaster level. Once the spell is cast, the illusionist has one turn (10 minutes) to activate the effect. Only one effect can be created with each casting of the spell.

New Monster and New Games!

/ jstater

A couple things today – first, a new monster:

DEAD EYES

Size/Type: Medium Undead
Hit Dice: 5
Armor Class: 16 [Silver]
Attack: 2 claws (1d4)
Movement: 30
Saves: F13 R13 W11
Resistance: Magic 10%
Alignment: Chaotic (CE)Intelligence: Average
No. Appearing: 1
XP: 1,250 (CL 7)

A dead eyes is an undead monster. It looks like a beautiful man or woman with frightening, dead eyes, black as night and absent of the spark of life. The monster lurks in caves or ruins, startling people first from the surprise appearance of a beautiful stranger in the wilderness, and then by the attack that follows.

A dead eyes hates beauty and happiness, and does what it can to destroy it. The monster can attack physically, even though it is semi-insubstantial, but its more potent attack is its gaze. The gaze of a dead eyes causes first physical numbness in the extremities, and then spiritual numbness.

The physical numbness takes the form of halving the character’s movement rate and a cumulative -1 penalty to hit and damage and AC each round, to a maximum of a -3 penalty. The spiritual numbness takes the form of first the crushing despair spell, and the next round the hold monster spell and the third round the loss of 1 level to energy drain per round.

SECOND – TWO NEW GAMES FROM JMS!

 

Swords & Sandals is a quick and easy role playing game based on old-fashioned gladiator and Hercules movies. Set in a fantasy Greco-Roman world, players take on the role of centurions, gladiators and sibyls, striving for gold and glory by fighting monsters and conquering cities. All you need to play is pencil, paper, a few ordinary dice, these rules, a few friends and a free afternoon. 37 pages. PDF … $3.19

 

Manbot Warriors: Remember the great sci-fi cartoons of the 1970’s and 1980’s? Well, Manbot Warriors isn’t one of them … but it could have been. Manbot Warriors is a quick and easy roleplaying game set in a sci-fi universe where heroic manbot warriors defend the peaceful citizens of the galaxy from the evil of the Galactic Core. Easy to learn and easy to play, it requires only a pencil, paper, a few ordinary dice and these rules. 19 pages. PDF … $2.99

I’ll have the print books up for sale soon – just need to get the review copies.

CHECK THEM OUT, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Dragon by Dragon – February 1980 (34)

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One of the fun things for me about doing these reviews, besides just exploring all the great “forgotten” material produced for our favorite games, is the covers. I didn’t get into D&D until around 1984, and didn’t know about Dragon Magazine until maybe a couple years after that, so these are all new to me. This month’s cover is, I think, particularly cool. An army working its way down a defile to face a decidedly chaotic-looking castle. The cover was painted by Ken Rahman, aka Elladan Elrohir.

Well, what are the top ten cool things to be found in The Dragon #34? Let’s see …

I. THIS IS WHY I KEEP IT VAGUE …

From “Out on a Limb”, a letter by Robert T. Willis III

“I would like to correct some numbers that appeared in “How Tall is a Giant?” (TD31). In the article, 3mm figures were equated with 1/500 scale, and the reader was led to expect that his rational guess of 1/600 was blatantly wrong. As a math major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I would like to point out that the article was wrong—3mm figures are actually 1/600 scale (1/609.6 is the exact number).

Since 3mm = 3/25.4 inches = 3/(25.4 x 12) feet = 3/304.8 feet, the scale is (3/304.8)/6 because the figure represents a man 6’ tall. This number is 1/609.6 which can be rounded to 1/600.”

II. MINING IDEAS

I know next to nothing about Divine Right by TSR, which is unfortunate since this issue devotes a great deal of time and energy to that game. That said, there’s usually something useful to be found in any game, and I thought these two tables might be useful:

Tombs and curses. I can imagine using this when dealing with large armies tromping across hex maps on the way to besiege a stronghold and coming across some mini-dungeon. Roll on the dice, lose the dice roll as a percent of your troops, and use that percentage chance for each named character in your army to die (allow a saving throw if you must – if they save, they do not die, but they may not participate in the battle).

III. WARGAME WHAT-IFS

Samuel Gill, in “Up on a Soap Box” presents a few ideas for wargame campaigns that twist actual history around a bit, such as a Mexican-Texican War in 1842 (which kinda sorta happened, though not on a huge scale), Mediterranean fleet action in WW1, assuming the Italians had not defaulted on their commitments to Germany and Austria-Hungary, and a revival of hostilities between France and Prussia in 1886.

This brings up not only the idea of using similar historical what-ifs for RPG campaigns, modern and medieval, but also twisting the history of your own campaign world. Imagine the characters in a long-standing campaign waking up to find the world they know changed in major ways, and having to figure out how the bad guys (or good guys, if the party is evil) did it, and how to get things back to normal – or maybe they cannot and now have to start from square one!

Sam’s article gives numerous other examples of alternate history, which are well worth the perusal.

IV. OH, I THINK GARY CAN ANSWER THAT …

A question from “Sage Advice”:

“Question: I have just started playing AD&D and I don’t know what the following weapons are: Bardiche, Bec de Corbin, Bill-Guisarme, Fauchard, Fauchard-Fork, Flail, Glaive, Glaive-Guisarme, Guisarme, Guisarme-Voulge, Lucern Hammer, Partisan, Pick, Ransuer, Scimitar, Spetum and Voulge.

Can you tell me what they are?”

Now we would just tell him to Google it.

V. MONSTER TABLES

If you’re playing a 1st edition AD&D game and like to keep it pristine, Blake Ward’s “Familiar Fiends” article might be just for you. It collects all the monsters in the AD&D Monster Manual and puts them into a random table for stocking dungeons. He also has a random table for determining what level of monster to use based on the dungeon level you’re stocking:

Very nice.

AWESOME ADVERT

Dig this ad for Judge’s Guild:

Love the fighter and his horse.

VI. RISKING THERMONUCLEAR WAR

Funny, isn’t it. We went from “Atomic War” to “Nuclear War” to “Thermonuclear War” and then back to “Nuclear War”. Anyhow …

A rare article in The Dragon for good old-fashioned RISK. This one, by George Laking, gives some variants on the old game, including the addition of nuclear weapons. I won’t go into the details, but they would certainly make for an interesting game … or you could just play Supremacy. Boy, we had a lot of fun with that game back in the day, and RISK and Axis & Allies as well.

VII. ONI VS. MINIATURES PAINTERS

Fantasysmith gives a guide to properly carrying your miniatures around without ruining them. What drew my eye was this illo:

When going to play wargames, always beware lurking ogre magi. Especially, one must presume, when in Japan.

VIII. GRIMTOOTH HAS COMPETITION

Look out for Gerard Moshofsky of Eugene, Oregon, Grimtooth, because he’s a devious guy. Check out this dandy trap:

This used to be quite the thing in old dungeon design. I think 3rd edition, by standardizing traps and attaching more rules to them, kind of killed this old creativity. Maybe I’m wrong.

IX. NAME GENERATOR

Love this name generator by Mark Whisler – it would be perfect for the barbarian mini-game I’m going to publish soon (from the “B for Barbarian” article in NOD).

Roll a d10 and d6 and cross-reference them on the table to get the first name element, then do it again for the second.

X. WEIRD OLD D&D

Tom Holsinger and Candy Peterson have a nice article on quirks and curses for magic items. Several tables, all good brain fodder, but I’ll point out these minor curses:

3) Develop highly unpopular sexual perversion (necktie party if you’re caught).

4) Develop socially unacceptable sexual perversion (Charisma reduced to 3 if you are discovered—Hint: It has to do with graveyards).

D&D was once for “weird adults” more than for “nerdy teens”.

AWESOME ADVERT

Broadsword Miniatures operated during the 1980’s out of Georgia USA. I liked the miniatures in the ad, so I did a little searching and found some more, like these goblins.

Man, I love those old miniature illustrations.

XI. DOOMKEEP

Last month’s adventure went well, so The Dragon included Doomkeep in this one, a dungeon by Brian Blume used as the Second Official Invitational AD&D Masters Tournament module. Obviously, I don’t have room in this issue to do a major review, but it has a chessboard room, which I love (see art below), and it includes the hand mirror of hoping, which has the following effects when used:

1. A Death Ray emerges (normal saving throw allowed).
2. A 5-die fireball explodes 32’ away from the mirror.
3. A twin of the object pointed at appears and aids the object pointed at (if possible).
4. 27 Blackbirds fly out of the mirror and confuse (saving throw allowed vs. spell) everyone in the area for 2 melee rounds.
5. The object pointed at is sucked into the mirror, never to return.
6. The object pointed at turns into a Type I Demon which attacks the holder of the mirror.
7. A 6-die lightning bolt shoots out 60’ from the mirror.
8. A Cure Critical Wounds spell is emitted at the thing pointed at.
9. A mist appears which obscures all vision in a 20’ x 20’ area (treat this as a Confusion spell if melee occurs in the mist).
10. Poison gas fills an area 30’ x 30’ (+2 on s.t).))

Also this …

 

Damn, I love old D&D.

OTHER GOODIES

This issue was actually pretty packed with interesting stuff …

“Minarian Legends” – huge article about the Muetarian Empire. Great art!

“Getting into the Flow of Magic Fountains” – random tables for generating magic fountains. I won’t reproduce the tables, but I will roll up a random fountain:

This fountain contains four drinks (weird, but okay). With each drink, a person gains an extra spell level (if they can cast spells), but also glow in the dark and suffer the effects of reduce person (save allowed).

“Dragon’s Bestiary” – this issue has the Vilkonnar by Charles Carson – a neutral evil underground humanoid race along with their slightly different cousins, the Kailiff.

“Dragon’s Mirth” – a standardized disaster scale by Jeff Swycaffer – fun, if nothing else for the U.S. regionalisms:

As always, I’ll leave you today with a tiny taste of Tramp …

 

They Sup on Your Dreams

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Hummingbird Men

Type: Tiny monstrous humanoid
Hit Dice: 0 (1d4 hp)
Armor Class: 13 [Silver]
Attacks: None
Move: 10 (Fly 100)
Saves: F19 R10 W14; +2 save vs. mind-affecting effects
Resistance: Magic 35%
Alignment: Neutral (N)
Intelligence: Low
No. Appearing: 1
XP: 50 (CL 1)

They are tiny, with long, beak-like snouts and beady eyes that sometimes strike you as cruel or callous, other times as curious. They have hummingbird wings where a man’s arms would be, and lithe bodies in pleasant, subdued colors – dusky rose, marmalade, the blue-grey of a threatening storm.

They appear at night, and settle down on a person to sup on the nectar of their fitful dreams. Dreams of isolation or rejection please them most; night terrors sate them quickly, but leave them unsatisfied. They hover and stare, and touch their snouts to the person’s temples or forehead, remaining for a few minutes. The dreamer has the best rest of his life; if he was nursing a psychic wound (such as damage to a mental ability score), he heals at twice the normal rate for the hummingbird man’s presence.

If the hummingbird man is threatened by one who knows not what it is or by one who cherishes his dreams, fair or foul, the beast flits back and disgorges nightmares from its snout. These nightmares are illusions, but hard to disbelieve (-2 to save). They usually take one of the following forms:

1 Black tentacles (solidifying from black mists)
2 Phantasmal killer (often a wild-eyed version of one’s close relatives/lovers/self)
3 Shapechange (into something one would not want to be)
4 Flesh to stone (usually a slow transitions, from feet to head)
5 Insect plague (but not always insects)

The victim has a chance to disbelieve each round, but only if the player says they disbelieve. The saving throw begins at -2, but the penalty increases by -1 each round as they are drawn further into the nightmare. The nightmare, thankfully, ends after 6 rounds, by which time the hummingbird man has fled to dine on blacker psyches.

Dragon by Dragon – January 1980 (33)

/ jstater

“This is the ’80s and I’m down with the ladies.” – Tone-Loc

And so we bravely enter the 1980’s (though, again, not technically). The Dragon #33 (we haven’t dropped the “the” yet) welcomes the new decade with “Dragon’s Lair” by John Barnes. The painting won Best of Show and “Best Color Fantasy” awards at the Northwest Annual Science Fiction Festival in Seattle.

What goodies await us inside? Let us find out.

I. Gardner F. Fox

Known best for the Justice Society of America, Fox also wrote fantasy novels later in life, the Kothar the Barbarian series maybe the best known of them, but also Niall of the Far Travels.

Oh, and apparently Guy Gardner was named for him (not sure that was an honor or an insult).

This issue of The Dragon features a short Niall story – the character has appeared in the magazine before. This one is “The Eyes of Mavis Deval”. Here’s the opening:

“It was her eyes that drew his stare as he sat astride the high-peak saddle of his stallion, there on the edge of the huge slave market. They were a brilliant green, those eyes, and it seemed to Niall of the Far Travels as he looked, that there was a tiny flame glowing in each pupil.”

II. Painting Tips

I got into painting Warhammer miniatures back in college, because I had waaaaay too much money and really needed to drain lots of it away on hunks of lead that I don’t look at anymore. So, I know a little (very little) about painting them, and this …

… looks like a darn good idea to me. Presented by Fantasysmith – the person knows his or her stuff!

III. H. R. Lovins, bringin’ the prose

Dig the sprightly prose:

“My friend and I had taken our favorites: a Fighter with rippling muscles, a Cleric of somber colors and mood, a superstitious slinking Thief, and a couple of guardian Magic Users. Unfortunately, someone else was using the back way for a similar evasion. Our leaders turned a corner into a party of a half-dozen well-dressed besworded gents who, not caring to sidle past our group, began to comment acidly on our travel-worn condition, and wonder aloud whether an unpleasant odor was ours, or native to the alley.”

The article is pretty interesting, in the idea of giving NPC’s a Caution (Cau) score. The Caution score is used for two things:

1) The score must be exceeded on a d20 before rolling reaction dice. If not exceeded, the NPC just walks away – no interaction with the players. I kind of dig this – after all, when confronted by a group of murder-hobos, I think most normal folk would get the heck out of there, smiling and making excuses.

2) The Caution score is also used to determine whether an NPC will get involved with a PC – do they throw caution to the wind and take the plunge. Again, you roll d20 and try to exceed CAU. In the case of “woo pitching”, as the kids say, you add the NPC’s Libido score to the roll. Libido score, you say? What’s the Libido score?

IV. Gygax on Magic

“Magic, AD&D magic, is most certainly make-believe. If there are “Black Arts” and “Occult Sciences” which deal with real, working magic spells, I have yet to see them. Mildly put, I do not have any faith in the powers of magic, nor have I ever seen anyone who could perform anything approaching a mere first-level AD&D spell without props.”

Sounds like the religious nuts are already giving him trouble over the “occult” influences on AD&D.

V. Speaking of Magic …

Len Lakofka in this issue is looking at the shortcomings of some of the spells as written, and is making suggestions for improvement. Magic Missile, for example …

“Gary Gygax and I have gone around in a circle on this spell for some period of time. The controversy, in my opinion, lies around the fact that there is NO SAVING THROW and that the missile goes “unerringly” to its target. Why is this so annoying to me? It is unfair because it allows players to foil most opposing spells by putting a Magic Missile into the opposing spell caster, it allows Magic Missiles into melee regardless of the size difference and quantity of ‘friends’ in the melee, and it allows for shots that would amaze Robin Hood with their accuracy!

Gary says that a Magic-User can counter with a simple spell like Shield to prevent this damage. What he overlooks is that the opponent must take a round to cast the Shield and in that time the spell caster is beset by fighters, et al. I find it too unfair to “monsters” that a single FIRST-level spell can be this powerful. Therefore, I have modified the spell in the following ways:

1. There is still no saving throw if the target is surprised, immobile, walking or prone and is at least the size of a Kobold.

2. Figures in melee, figures running (except those running right at the spell caster), figures evading, behind (or moving behind) significant cover, or casting a spell obtain some type of saving throw. This saving throw is their normal one with modification as follows:

A figure casting a spell obtains a s.t., but at -4.

A figure in melee obtains a normal s.t. but adds +1 for every opponent above the first one he/she/it is fighting (unless the size differential is so significant that the opponents do not get in the way—i.e., 6 dwarves against a hill giant would allow the giant a normal s.t. Missiles that MISS their target might hit others in the melee! Select a figure and then give him/her/it a normal s.t. to see if the stray missile hits or misses. In the above example, the dwarves would not be hit. All saving throws are on a missile-by-missile basis. Missiles fire at a rate of 1 every 3 seconds. Thus, a figure moving behind a wall might not be hit by every missile in a barrage of Magic missiles.

A figure with over 50% cover (who then presents a target size of ½ a kobold) always obtains a s.t. of from 16 to 20 depending upon cover and his/her/its actions. This prevents firing through an arrow slit some hundred feet away to hit some poor guard. I have found it necessary to rule in this way to stop Magic-Users from Magic Missiling everything that walks because of the broad language of the spell text. Magic Missile, as written, is too powerful and must be toned down.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you rules bloat. The problem, of course, isn’t the DM making the rules he wants for his game. It’s in the opening paragraph:

“I felt that some spells leave a great deal unsaid (or they say too much), and thus individual rulings are often necessary to prevent abuses and to make the game fair and equitable for players and “monsters” alike.”

So what’s wrong with individual rulings?

Well, what was wrong was that the hobby had already grown into two camps. One was playing the game at home, and doing what they wanted with their campaigns. The other was either playing at conventions, and thus needed everybody on the same page, or was playing at home and still believed that everyone needed to be on the same page. I’m a libertarian, so you can guess which side I’m on in this argument.

In Lakofka’s defense, it’s not just about standardization or extra rules. It’s about players being creative with spells, and trying to turn every spell into “instant death”.

VI. No Swords for Clerics

I liked this bit from Lawrence Huss about why clerics may not use edged (or pointy) weapons:

“‘Why, ‘tis as plain as the forbidden pikestaff! The purpose and nature of all edged weapons (and what is a point but a section of an edge?) is to cut, release blood and kill, both in reality and symbolically.

‘The club, mace and flail are but growths of the staff, which stands for guidance and religious authority. Though the end result of the sword stroke and the well-aimed mace blow are the same, the symbolic intent differs. As the High Power judges our acts much from a viewpoint in which symbols supersede particulars, this symbolic difference in intent is of greatest importance, both to the performance of the specifically clerical functions and in the gaining of spiritual eminence.'”

In other words, spare the rod, spoil the bugbear.

Now, some might argue that symbolism is pointless – the enemy is dead. What does it matter that he was slashed or bludgeoned to death?

But we’re talking clerics. Priests. Symbolism is everything!

VII. Old Time Hockey Gaming, Coach!

Did you ever want to see a huge list of Game Masters operating in the U.S. in 1980? Great – this issue is for you. Let’s check out my stomping grounds, Las Vegas NV.

We have Bill Coburn, running D&D, Traveler, Metamorphosis Alpha and general board games, and David Whitney, running D&D, Traveler and general board games.

We’ve seen Bil Coburn in the pages of The Dragon before, writing on the effectiveness of poison back in September 1978. I couldn’t find him online, nor David Whitney. Alas.

VIII. Question of the Month

“QUESTION: There is this character (a Magic-User) being refereed by an inexperienced DM. Because of his lack of knowledge, he let the character advance in levels too quickly. He also has 86 magic items. By the time the character got to 34th level, the DM had learned from his mistakes and proceeded to try to kill the powerful character. He tried a Ring of Transference, and when that didn’t work he hit him with 2000 (100% magic resistant) thieves. Is it within the D&D or AD&D rules for a DM to deliberately try to kill a character?”

Yikes!!!

Runner up:

“QUESTION: Is an invisibility spell cancelled when you fall on your face from tripping either over your own feet or from someone else’s number 13’s?

ANSWER: No.”

IX. The Infancy of Home Computing

This issue has the inaugural article on “The Electrical Eye”, about gaming on computers. I thought the little guide to computer manufacturers was intresting:

Witness Apple corporate HQ just 35 years ago (I think … the actual street number doesn’t show up on GoogleEarth):

Oh, and yeah, they got the address wrong above. It was on Bandley Drive, as confirmed at this article showing the layout.

X. Frosts

The “Dragon’s Bestiary” this month is by Roger Moore – Rogar of Moria. I always like Roger in the pages of the later Dragon’s that I read.

Frosts are “snow pixies” – little buggers that pack a punch. Here’s an adaptation of the stats for Blood & Treasure …

Size/Type: Tiny Fey
Hit Dice: 0
Armor Class: 15
Attacks: 1 attack (1d3)
Move: 20′ (Fly 60′)
Saves: F19 R12 W12
Intelligence: High
Alignment: Neutral (with good tendencies)
No. Appearing: 1d6

Frosts can turn invisible at will, but cannot attack while invisible. They can use cone of cold (3 dice) once per day and frost fingers (cold version of burning hands) 2/day – and can use frost fingers while invisible. One frost in six can use freezing sphere once per day. Frosts can also control temperatures within 10 feet.

I’ll leave you this fine Sunday morning with some Tramp

Freaky Friday Campaign Idea – The Trees

/ jstater / 1 Comment

I’m going to start trying to produce off-the-top-of-my-head, not-well-thought-out campaign ideas on Fridays, from now until eternity (or until I stop, whichever comes first). Today …

THE TREES!

A strange meteor falls from the sky (or a archmage screws up a spell, or Zeus has a fever dream), releasing a bizarre monster (basically Groot, but not the lovable version we saw in our movie houses, but more like the monster from the old comic books … which I never read, and which may also have been lovable) and strange radiations and gases and electricities and vibrations and such. The trees awaken! Everywhere! Billions of them!

All of these trees are treants, and they’re under Groot’s command. Groot is using them to conquer the world. Obviously, wooded areas and elves are hardest hit. The great elven kingdoms perish quickly under a storm of knobby fists and splinters. A few escape the slaughter and attempt to rally the other fantasy races.

The dwarves are besieged in their mountain hideouts.  They’ll try to sit it out … unless the fungi monsters are on Groot’s side as well. Eventually they’ll get hungry, though, and have to grab their father’s axes and get down to business.

The halflings are attacked by their own orchards (“Are you insinuating my apples aren’t everything they’re supposed to be?”). Humans deploy crack squads of lumberjacks (and the Spanish Inquisition, because, obviously trees expect them least of all), but they’re outmatched by all those damn treants and people are forced into deserts … unless they are the kinds of deserts with cacti ! They’re also trees! Spiked treants who are super good at retaining water! Ye Gods!

Do the treants have allies – heck yeah! Assassin vines, those other vines that make people into zombies, various animated shrubbery … well, plant monsters in general. Maybe dryads chuck in with their new mobile homes as well (damn tree-huggers). Nymphs have always struck me as a bit shifty. They become the Mata Haris of the Arboreal Invasion.

Obviously, the key to survival is to get to Groot and destroy him, and that means … a party of oddball murder hobos. Help us, player characters, you’re our only hope!

Saving Throws – 2E vs 3E

/ jstater / 5 Comments

I’m beginning the process of revising Blood & Treasure for release next year. This is primarily a task of getting in the errata, looking for things I and others might have missed, and refreshing the design. I want to make the books more readable, and thus easier to use. I’m also considering new cover art for the books – commissioned cover art. If you have suggestions for artists you would like to see grace the covers, let me know in the comments.

Revisions are also a good time to examine some premises – are there things that were not wrong, per se, but which could be better. To that end, I was looking at saving throws the other day, and whether B&T saving throws, which are based on the values in 3rd edition, are easier or harder than saving throws in older editions.

I did a quick search online this morning and found the 2nd edition AD&D saving throw tables, so I’m using them for this analysis. I figured that Save vs. Paralyzation, Poison & Death Magic mapped pretty well to Fortitude in B&T. Save vs. Breath Weapon maps pretty well to Reflexes, and Spells to Will. What I didn’t notice until now (it’s been a while since I looked at 2nd edition, and perhaps the values are the same in 1st as well), is that Save vs. Wands, Staves and Rods is just Save vs. Spells, but 1 point easier. I’ll incorporate that into the revised B&T for sure (+1 bonus to save vs. spells cast from wands, staves and rods).

Anyhow – here is how they shaped up:

Clerics (or Priests, in 2E) weren’t that great against spells, which was changed in 3E. People often complained about the clerics being a bit too good in 3E, so perhaps they shouldn’t have made that change. That aside, the other categories end up pretty close at 20th level, but PPDM is much better than FORT for most of the cleric’s career. Perhaps the worse FORT save in 3E makes up for the better WILL save.

The fighters have an easier time of it in 3E at early levels, and a worse time of it at higher levels in terms of REF and WILL saves.

Magic-users are pretty close on PPDM vs. FORT and BW vs. REF. SP/WILL differ somewhat, with a marked improvement in 3E at very high levels.

Thieves in 2E were better vs. PPDM than BW, which was flipped in 3E. Save vs. Spells / WILL is pretty close.

So, between those editions, there were changes to be sure, but the overall ranges from 15 to 8 for poor saving throws and 13 to 3 for good saving throws, are pretty close.

My temptation is to do hybrids of these in the revised B&T, so they’re not quite so formulaic. Something like:

Mini-Games-O-Rama

/ jstater / 10 Comments

A week or so ago, I started fooling with the idea of a mini-game called Manbot Warriors based on a Saturday morning cartoon show that never existed. I like the idea of a little 6×9 booklet, short and to the point, played only with normal dice (i.e. d6) that people could take on trips or pull out on a rainy day and have fun with. Cost should be minimal – maybe $6 or $7 for a book and a couple bucks for a PDF.

Well, Manbot Warriors is getting some play testing and I already have a first draft being printed at Lulu so I can see how I did on the technical side. I’ve also worked up a rough draft for a Greco-Roman fantasy mini-game called Swords & Sandals – based more on old Hercules and gladiator movies than actual history, of course.

I’m super excited about the idea of inexpensive mini games at the moment, and if I can get the rules right, I should be able to have lots of fun with the concept. In fact, my imagination has been racing. Here are the ideas/titles that I’ve pondered trying to make:

Deviant Decade – 1970’s era role playing on the mean streets – the adventurers are a party of vigilantes, cops and frightened citizens trying to make their way from one point to another in Big City (probably based on New York)

Emergency Rescue – firemen, paramedics, police fighting fires and rescuing people from harm; inspired by plastic firemen I had as a kid and the old Emergency! TV show (which I still watch to this day)

Love & Pain – a soap opera RPG – I think I have a clever way to make it work, but I’m not sure yet

Badmen – Old West – just feels right

Damask & Demimondaines – court intrigue, duels, factions, with lots of silk and snuff and lace and fancy facial hair

All-Out War – inspired by plastic army men; missions behind the line

Grenadiers & Gorgons – Napoleonic fantasy

Vaults of Gold & Sorcery – a modern take on dungeon delving (inspired by some stock art I got online)

King of the Surf – inspired by Endless Summer and 1960’s beach movies – I think this one could be a really fun rainy day game

Hippie Hijinks – inspired by the old Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics I inherited from a friend (I was always a Fat Freddy’s Cat guy myself) – sneaking into Disneyland, fighting “The Man”, etc.

Goblins & Pagodas – Asian fantasy; got the name from a poetry book in the public domain

Justice For All – A quick and easy superhero game

Teen Mystery Club – inspired by Scooby Doo, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew type of stuff – mostly “catch the fake ghost”

Kaiju vs. Mecha – you play the mecha operator – fight the kaiju in your machine, and try to discover, on foot, it’s secret vulnerability

MegaRuin Explorer Tatakai – dungeon exploring anime style – again, I have some cool stock art, and I want to use it

American Empires 1800 – I think I’ll resurrect this idea as a mini game

Mutant Truckers – Likewise, this would work well in the mini game format

Astronauts & Aliens – I’m thinking a 1960’s, space age game of Astronauts (and Cosmonauts as well, I guess) exploring alien ruins on the moon. The technology would be “of the time”, so no ray guns and such.

Don’t Go In There – Horror RPG – party of normal folks being stalked by a monster or slasher or whatever. Might try to do this one for the next issue of NOD and include it as a mini-game for the Halloween season.

B for Barbarian – I’ll probably change the name, but I wrote this mini-game a year-or-so-ago and will definitely publish it in the 6×9 format.

Pen & Paper Football – Not quite the same, but the rules for the mini-game I published in NOD a few issues back. This is a no-brainer, so it will definitely happen at some point.

I did a poll with five of these on Google+, and Deviant Decade and All-Out War were the most popular (which is cool, since I figured I’d be writing them soon anyways). Let me know which one’s spark your imagination. I’ve also considered doing a combo of easy rules with actual short adventure included, something like the one-page dungeons.

In the meantime, I have GRIT & VIGOR and NOD 27 to finish up.

Remember – if you’d like to submit something to NOD, please contact me – email in the column to the right.

Dragon by Dragon – December 1979 (32)

/ jstater / 2 Comments

Depending where you are when you read this, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or good night. It’s Sunday, which means it’s time to crack open the vault and review another issue of The Dragon. Technically not the last of the 1970’s (that would be December 1980), but for most folks, the end of the decade.

Let’s take a look at the Top 10 Cool Things in The Dragon #32

Side note – cover by Phil Foglio, which means his contributions to the magazine’s comics section shouldn’t be too far away. Always a highlight for me back in the day.

Yes, because of Dixie. I’m a red-blooded American male, and I make no apologies for it.

ONE | GOOD ADVICE

When question about super high level characters (as in, “no freaking way they got there fairly), ED gives the following sage advice …

“Cheating, yes, but who? If you refuse to play with these sorry individuals, they are only cheating
themselves of the feeling of accomplishment that comes from having honestly earned a level advancement. To each his own . . .”

Good advice then, and good now. Learn to enjoy losing spectacularly at games, and you will find them twice as enjoyable as you used to.

TWO | POISON

Charles Sagui has an article on “Poisons from AA to XX” that I enjoyed. I always like articles written from a position of authority concerning make-believe stuff, and this one has several firm rules for poisons that you might not have known:

1) Poison is restricted to Neutral and Evil characters when used against human or humanoid types … against dungeon monsters, anyone can use poison.

2) Alchemists alone distill and manufacture poisons – magic-users, thieves and assassins who are caught making poisons are told immediately to “cease and desist” – imagine, slapping a cease and desist order from the Alchemist’s Guild on a PC! Apparently, if the order is ignore, the PC “will receive a visitor who will see to it that he stops permanently.” – Sounds like a fun encounter to run.

3) Alchemists learn to make poison at one strength per level of experience up to the 5th, beginning with level 0, strength “AA”. At 6th, the alchemist can make strength “S” sleep poison. After 6th, he learns to make one strength per two levels, through strength “J” at 16th level. Type “X” can be made by 20th level alchemists, type “XX” by 25th level alchemists. Alchemists through 4th level make only ingested poisons. From 5th to 8th level, they make ingested plus water-soluble poisons. From 9th to 16th they learn to make contact and gaseous poisons.

4) Assassins are the main customers, and they dictate to the alchemists who can buy poison. Locksmiths are granted permission by the assassins to put poison needles and gases in locks and chests so the rich can keep their possessions safe. – This suggests that the thieves and assassins are not on the best of terms.

5) Any character is permitted to buy strength “S” sleep poison. Thieves, by paying the assassins 500 gp per level, are permitted to buy strengths “AA”, “A” and “B” poison. They may buy up to 60 vials of “AA” per year, up to 30 vials of “A” and up to 15 vials of “B”. Magic-users can pay 1,000 gp per level to get the right to coat darts and daggers with “AA” and “A” poison. The same buying restrictions for thieves apply.

6) A small vial of poison is enough to coat 6 arrowheads, 8 darts, 12 needles or 1 dagger or spear point. Two vials will coat a short sword. Three will coat a long or broadsword, four a bastard sword and five a two-handed sword. Each coating lasts for 2 successful hits, and up to 5 coats can be applied to a blade at a time. One vial is equal to one dose when swallowed.

7) Evil humanoids should never use more than “AA” poison. If they are employed by a powerful evil NPC, they may use up to “D”.

8) Poisons found in dungeons are:

0-50% – ingested
51-80% – water-soluble
81-90% – contact
91-100% – poison gas

9) Damage from poison is taken at a rate of the minimum hit point damage for the poison per melee round (which would have been a minute, back in the old days) until max damage rolled is met. So, a poison that deals 1-10 damage would do 1 point of damage per round. If you rolled “6” damage, it would deal 1 point of damage per round for 6 rounds. A poison that did 5-100 damage would deal 5 points of damage per round.

10) When you save vs. sleep poison, you act as though slowed for 3 rounds.

11) When using poison-coated weapons, each time you draw the weapon or return it to its scabbard, you have to save by rolling your Dex or less (on 1d20, I assume), minus 1 for water-soluble and -3 for contact, or you suffer max poison damage. You also have to make a Dex save every other round for water soluble and every round for contact poison that the weapon is used in combat to avoid poisoning yourself. This applies until the weapon is washed, even if the weapon does not have enough poison left to poison opponents in combat.

12) Silver weapons will not hold poison, not will magic weapons. Normal weapons that are poison-coated gives them a dark discoloration, so everyone will know the weapon is poisoned.

Lots of rules, but actually pretty useful ones. The article then goes on to detail the different poison strengths – I won’t reproduce those here.

THREE | WEAPONS OF ASIA

This is a companion article to the armor article from last issue, also by Michael Kluever. Here’s a bit on the Chu-ko-nu, or repeating crossbow.

“An interesting variation was the repeating crossbow (Chu-ko-nu). It propelled two bolts simultaneously from its wooden magazine, which held a total of 24 featherless quarrels, each approximately 8.25 inches long. The bolts were contained in a box sliding on top of the stock and moved into firing position by a lever pivoted to both. The throwing of the lever forward and back drew the bowstring, placed the bolt in position and fired the weapon. Chinese annals relate that 100 crossbowmen could project 2,000 quarrels in fifteen seconds. The repeater crossbow was used as late as the Chinese Japanese War of 1894-95.”

Apparently I need to include it in Grit & Vigor.

FOUR | SINISTER SEAWEED

You got some interesting articles back in the day. This one, by George Laking, is about aquatic megaflora, and its danger to adventurers. The info in the article was designed by the Mid-Columbia Wargaming Society of Richland, Washington. With a little searching, I found a picture of Mr. Laking and some society members from a 1978 newspaper. The internet!

So, you’re first thought it – screw seaweed, bring me dragons!

You fool!

Apparently, megaflora stands capture oxygen in vast bubble domes within their branches. Within this bubble dome, there is a bunch of dry limbs and twigs from this megaflora. The interior of the dome resembles a quiet, dry forest surrounded by thick trunks. Bubble dome heights range from 4 to 40 feet, depending on the size of the stand.

Where’s the danger. Well, the stands can capture ships for 1-12 hours, making them vulnerable to aquatic monster attacks.

The bigger danger is bubble dome “blows”! The domes are temporary structures. In some cases, the gas cannot escape and pressure builds up until it explodes, throwing dry branches and limbs 2d10 x 10 feet into the air in a huge fountain of water and foam! Ships will fall into the void left, and then be slammed by the walls of water rushing back in, possibly destroying the ship. A blown stand looks like a peaceful lagoon with walls of megaflora around it, quickly growing in to fill the clearing. This will be the lair of aquatic monsters, guarding the treasure left by ships destroyed in past blows.

A third danger is that pure oxygen is poisonous to people. Divide the height of the dome by 10 and take this as a percentage chance per hour that a character absorbs too much oxygen into her bloodstream. A character who reaches this threshold, upon leaving the dome, must make a save vs. poison or immediately die.

Also – pure oxygen is extremely flammable. Let’s say you light a torch inside the dome …

“(1) The initial explosion of gas would create a 6-20 die fireball of incandescent oxygen, depending on the size and depth of the bubble dome (depth of dome divided by ten equals hit dice). The size of the fireball would be half as large as the initial dome after the explosion of the gas. Saving throws would be applicable.

(2) Following the initial explosion, the fireball would immediately rise to the surface with a subsequent catastrophic inrush of ocean water onto the previously dry dome interior. Each character would have to undergo a check for system shock as the walls of water met with implosive fury. A character saving vs. system shock would only take 3-10 (d6) of damage. Failing to save means immediate death!

(3) Finally—should the character survive—an immediate check vs. oxygen poisoning would be necessary to determine if he/she had exceeded the critical threshold at that point. If so, that character would have to make an additional save vs. poison per oxygen poisoning (above).”

Frankly, a weird bubble dome dungeon would be awesome, and a great challenge. A ship gets stuck and attacked by aquatic ogres. Adventurers follow them down to retrieve something important, find a massive bubble dome with a dead, maze-like forest within it. They have to work fast to avoid being killed by too much oxygen, and there is a chance that it explodes and the ship is drawn down into sea and crushed.

FIVE | THE BEST LAID PLANS

From Gygax’s “Sorcerer’s Scroll”:

“In a previous column I mentioned that I would set up an adventure where the players would end up in the city streets of the 20th century. Well, I knocked together some rules, put the scenario together, stocked the place with “treasures” of a technological sort, and sprinkled some monsters (thugs, gangs, police, etc.) around.

Much to my chagrin, Ernie the Barbarian was leading the expedition. When his party emerged from the subway—and despite the general blackout in the city due to the power failure caused by their entry into this alternate world—he stopped, looked, listened and then headed back for the “safety” of the “real world!” Some people really know how to spoil a DM’s fun …”

Damn players.

SIX | SAGE ADVICE

From Jean Wells in “Sage Advice”:

“The subject is dwarven women and whether or not they have beards. Last spring when we were working on the final editing of the Dungeon Masters Guide, I tried to get Gary Gygax to change the section on dwarves so that dwarven women would not have beards. Needless to say, I was not very successful.

What I didn’t realize was that for some strange reason (completely unknown to me), I had started something. I did not understand the full impact of what I had done until I went to GenCon this year. Many people stopped me in the hall to either agree with me wholeheartedly, or disagree with me and then tell me that I was crazy. Everyone knows that dwarven women have beards, they said. It did not stop there. Oh, no! We have even been getting mail on this issue. It is not too bad, but I don’t like being accused of making an issue out of the subject.

One thing that everyone who has taken sides in this issue fails to remember is that Gary Gygax wrote the Dungeon Masters Guide and it is his book. He can say whatever he wants to. You can agree with him or side with me, but either way, the person who has final say in his or her campaign is the DM. So, for all the people who have written in to agree with me or to agree with Gary, and for those who haven’t yet but were planning to, please save your breath. Gnome women don’t have beards (this is true and I am glad). Dwarven women may indeed have beards, Gary, but not in my world.”

Yeah, there have always been gamers who A) didn’t get that it was make-believe, and there was therefore no right or wrong, and B) didn’t get that their own opinion isn’t law.

Also this question:

“Question: We are having an argument over an issue that has us divided. My friends say that with a ring of telekinesis they can make an arrow spin at the speed of light and then release it, having it do between 100 and 600 points of damage to their target. I say this is impossible! What do you think?”

God – I remember these fools.

Finally:

“Question: I am having a romance with a god, but he won’t have anything to do with me until I divorce my present husband. How do I go about divorcing my husband?”

Ye Gods!

BONUS AD!

For sale – crappy t-shirts.

Actually, I would wear one of these with a ridiculous amount of pride. I’m super tempted to lift the graphic and make one online for myself.

Looks like the Barbarian Shop was in a private residence:

SEVEN | INSECTOIDS

Len Lakofka presents in this issue his insectoids, which are just the humanoid races with insect characteristics grafted on. For example: Scorpiorcs. For Blood & Treasure, they would look like:

Scorpiorc, Medium Monstrous Humanoid: HD 2; AC 16; ATK 2 pincers (1d6) and weapon; MV 40; SV F15 R12 W13; XP 300 (CL 4); Special-Surprised on d8 (due to eye stalks), move silently (70%), back stab x2.

Scorpiorcs never use flaming swords or carry any sort of flame. They also never use armor, but may carry a shield. They speak Scorkish and broken Orcish. They can advance as fighters from a beginning “level” of 2 to a top rank of 4.

I also have to mention the “skags”, which are a blend of scorpion, kobold, ant and goblin. This is actually a sort of “monster class” – dig it:

BONUS AD

Great title. Found HERE at Boardgame Geek. Stephen Fabian did the art, so it has be worth a few bucks based on that alone.

EIGHT | TRAVELER POLITICS

I’ve never played Traveler, so I can’t comment on the utility of this article about diplomats in the Traveler Universe. I can, however, draw attention to this table, which may prove useful to people:

I’m sure somebody can adapt this to their game, when trying to figure out an NPC’s s power base in some fantasy or sci-fi city.

NINE | DRUIDS

William Fawcett has a long article on “The Druid in Fact and Fantasy”. A tough subject, because so little is known, or at this point, can be known. I’m not going to dwell on the historical bits in the article, but I did like this:

“DECLARATION OF PEACE
A new Druidic ability

Although the Druid, due to his involvement with life, is unable to turn undead, his role of the peacemaker gives him a similar ability with most humanoids. Before or during any armed combat if he has not struck any blow, a Druid has the ability to make a Declaration of Peace. This declaration has a 10% plus 5% per level (15% 1st level, 20% 2nd, etc.) chance of causing all armed combat to cease for two rounds per level of the Druid. This does not affect magical combat in any way, nor will it stop a humanoid who is in combat with any non-humanoid opponent. Once the combat is stopped, any non-combat activities may take place such as cures, running away (and chasing), blesses, magic of any form, or even trying to talk out the dispute.

After peace has been successfully Declared, combat will resume when the effect wears off (roll initiatives), or at any time earlier if anyone who is under the restraint of the Declaration is physically harmed in any way. This could be caused by an outside party or even by magic, which is not restrained by the Declaration. A fireball going off tends to destroy even a temporary mood of reconciliation. Once a Druid strikes a blow or causes direct harm in any way to a member of a party of humanoids, he permanently loses his ability to include any member of that party in a Declaration of Peace. The Declaration of Peace affects all those within the sound of the Druid’s voice, a 50’ radius which may be modified by circumstances.”

He also has quite a few magic cauldrons and some thoughts on herbs. Good read overall.

TEN | MIRTH

Well, it’s funny to DM’s

ELEVEN | THE FELL PASS

An adventure in this issue – “The Fell Pass” by Karl Merris!

Check out the map:

That hatching seems reminiscent! A also hereby challenge Dyson Logos to include more giant, disembodied hands on his very excellent maps.

The adventure takes place in geothermally heated caverns, and includes cave bears, ogres, a spidersilk snare, gray ooze, manticores, griffons, shadows, trolls, pit vipers, Vlog the Ogre …

… and Xorddanx the Beholder:

I love the heck out of that art, which is by Merris himself!

I did some searching, and I’m pretty sure I’ve found him online. He appears to be a Brony now, and might have no interest left in D&D, but if I can commission a piece of fantasy art from him, I’ll let you know …

FINAL SHOT

Dimensional String Theory

/ jstater / 3 Comments
Via Wikipedia

Long-time fantasy gamers get the idea of “planes”. Each plane is its own reality, and it connects in some fashion with other planes, and they’re mostly just where high level characters go to kill things and steal their stuff. Simple enough.

How about we swap out planes for strings.

[Disclaimer – I don’t know anything about actual string theory. I’m just stealing a term because it sounds cool and kind of fits this conception of planes and dimensions in fantasy games]

No, the elemental plane of fire won’t look like a tightrope – it will still be an endless reality of fire and efreet. But it will functionally be a string, as will all the other planes. Dozens of planes, as strings, crisscrossing the multiverse and, at certain points, touching.

At a planar nexus, the reality of two planes (or more) are combined, forming a little pocket dimension (perhaps a planet) that combines the aspects of the planes that are connected. So you might have a plane that combines Elemental Fire with Chaotic Good, or a plane that combines Shadow with Water. Maybe the Astral Plane is where all these strings are located – and maybe when traversing that plane you can accidentally hit a string and find yourself in another plane. The Ethereal is just the blurry edges of the vibrating Material Plane, and can be a passage to these “nexus points” that interact with the Material Plane.

Maybe the Material Plane is just a nexus point between all the different planes of reality?