Mass Combat in Blood and Treasure

/ jstater / 3 Comments

 

I want to start this off by wishing folks a happy Memorial Day, especially those who are serving in the armed forces, have served, or lose a loved one who served. Though my family doesn’t have a massive history of military service, I can point to my father Rick, who served in the USAF and spent some time overseas in Thailand, my grandfather John (“Pa”) who was a doctor in the US Army and helped take care of folks after the bombing of Hiroshima, and several uncles.

And since I’m thinking of the military and mass combat (and need an easy blog post for the day), why not take a look at the mass combat system for Blood & Treasure. The system is easy to run and essentially works off the games normal combat rules, so don’t expect anything earth shattering. The idea behind Blood & Treasure isn’t to break new ground in gaming, but provide a platform in between the different editions. Anyhow …

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When a lord or lady finds it necessary to place themselves and their followers on the field of battle against another large force, the normal rules for combat may become untenable. For this reason, you can instead use these rules for mass combat. In most respects, they use the same basic rules as normal combat, but adjust those rules to take into account the larger numbers of combatants involved.

SQUADRONS
To keep things simple, groups of combatants are divided into squadrons of 10. The squadron is the basic unit for fighting, and in mass combat a squadron attacks as though it were a single creature. Thus, a squadron of dwarves would make a single weapon attack on its turn, while a squadron of lizardmen could make a weapon and bite attack.

A squadron has as many hit points as its collective members have Hit Dice. Thus, a squadron of 10 dwarves, who have one HD each, has 10 hp. For mass combat, 0 HD troops are counted as ½ HD.

Squadrons of Large creatures (and mounted troops are considered to be the same size as their mounts) have only five members, while huge creatures and siege engines are treated as units in and of themselves.

Squadrons can be grouped into larger units, as follows: A company consists of 2 squadrons (and thus makes double the normal amount of attacks), a battalion consists of four squadrons and a regiment consists of eight squadrons.

Each squadron is assumed to form a single rank of troops on the battlefield. A squadron of men-at-arms would therefore consist of 10 men-at-arms standing in a row. A company of men-at-arms could either consist of 20 men-at-arms standing in a row or two ranks of ten. With each unit, it is necessary to note its number of ranks.

Note that only the front rank of troops can attack unless the troops are armed with pole arms or spears (in which case the second rank can attack), pikes (in which case the second and third ranks can attack), or ranged weapons (in which every rank can attack).

Typical units of soldiers might be as follows (note, the number in parentheses represents the number of squadrons and then the number of creatures):

Squadron of Ogres (1/5): Ranks 1; HD 4; hp 20; AC 16; Atk 1 greatclub (2d8) or javelins (30 ft., 1d8); Move 30; Save Fort 10, Ref 14, Will 15. Leather armor, greatclubs and javelins (1).

Company of Halberdiers (2/20): Ranks 2; HD 1; hp 20; AC 15; Atk 2 halberd (1d10); Move 30; Save Fort 13, Ref 15, Will 15. Chainmail, halberd.

Battalion of Halfling Slingers (4/40): Ranks 1; HD 0; hp 20; AC 15; Atk 4 sling (50 ft., 1d4) or 4 short sword (1d6); Move 20; Save Fort 13, Ref 16, Will 16. Padded armor, sling, short sword; halfling special abilities.

Regiment of Orcs (8/80): Ranks 4; HD 1; hp 80; AC 13; Atk 2 falchion (2d4) or 8 javelin (50 ft., 1d4); Move 30; Save Fort 13, Ref 15, Will 16. Studded leather armor, falchion, javelins (1).

ORDER OF BATTLE
Mass combat uses the following order of play:

1) Orders Phase
2) Missile Phase I
3) Movement Phase
4) Melee Phase
5) Magic Phase
6) Missile Phase II

After the second Missile Phase, play returns to the Orders Phase.

Orders Phase: In the orders phase, each unit is given its orders. Once these orders are given, they cannot be changed, though they can be disrupted by events on the battlefield. In other words, once the command has been given for a company of orcs to march up a hill, they cannot change their mind when a company of knights gets there first. Naturally, orders are given without each commander knowing what commands his opponent is giving to his soldiers.

Missile Phase: There are two missile phases during each round of mass combat. During a missile phase, groups of missile armed troops can cast their missiles if they did not move during the movement phase. The rate of fire of various ranged weapons is very important during mass combat missile phases. Some ranged weapons can attack in both missile phases, others in only one.

Blowguns, bows, javelins, darts and slings can attack in each missile phase.

Crossbows, muskets and pistols can attack in one missile phase.

Siege engines can attack in one missile phase.

Movement Phase: During this phase, units move in the direction and at the speed they have been ordered. Units within 10 yards of an enemy unit cannot move at faster than combat speed (i.e. half normal speed). Movement of troops is simultaneous.

Melee Phase: Enemy units that have come into contact (i.e. within 1 yard of one another) must participate in a round of melee combat.

Magic Phase: During this phase, spellcasters on the field of battle can discharge spells. Remember that rounds in mass combat are one minute long, so spell durations may be altered.

ATTACKS AND DAMAGE
As mentioned above, each squadron in a game can attack as though it were a single creature of the same type using the same attack rules as used in normal combat (see above). Combat rounds in mass combat are measured in minutes, rather than six second intervals. Each successful attack by a squadron, by spell or weapon, rolls normal hit point damage against its target unit.

A unit can sustain no more hit point damage than it exposes in its first rank. Thus, a unit with five normal humans (1 HD each) in its first rank can sustain no more than 5 points of damage. If that unit is being attacked by spears or pole arms, double this total. If it is being attacked by pikes, triple this total. If it is being attacked by ranged weapons, it can suffer as much damage as the attackers can dish out.

Units can also “bull rush” an opposing unit in combat, making a normal attack with a +1 bonus for every additional rank it has over the opposing unit. If successful, it pushes the opposing unit back 10 yards, but scores no damage.

MORALE CHECKS
Three events can force a unit to check morale.

1) When a unit has lost half or more of its hit points, or takes damage when at less than half its normal hit points.
2) When its commander has been killed.
3) When it is subjected to a magic fear effect.

When a unit must make a morale check, it rolls a Will saving throw using either its own Will save value or its leaders.
If a unit succeeds on this save, it keeps on fighting. Otherwise, it flees from enemy troops at running speed. If it was engaged with another unit, that unit gets a free set of attacks against it with a tactical advantage bonus.

Each round, the unit commander, if one remains, can attempt to rally the troops with a new Will saving throw modified by his or her Charisma modifier. If successful, the unit spends one minute reforming itself and can then move and attack on the next round. After two full rounds of fleeing, the unit disintegrates into its constituent parts and effectively ceases to exist.

SIEGE ENGINES
Siege engines are large weapons, temporary structures, or pieces of equipment traditionally used in besieging a castle or fortress.

Catapult, Heavy: A heavy catapult, or trebuchet, is a massive engine capable of throwing rocks or heavy objects with great force. Because the catapult throws its payload in a high arc, it can hit things out of its line of sight.

To fire a heavy catapult, the crew chief makes a ranged attack modified by Intelligence rather than Dexterity. If the attack succeeds, the catapult stone hits the place the catapult was aimed at and deals the indicated damage. Characters that succeed on a Reflex saving throw take half damage. Once a catapult stone hits, subsequent shots hit the same spot unless the catapult is re-aimed or the wind changes direction or speed.

If a catapult stone misses, roll 1d8 to determine where it lands. This determines the misdirection of the throw, with 1 being back toward the catapult and 2 through 8 counting clockwise around the target square. Then, count 3 squares away from the target square for every range increment of the attack.

Loading a catapult requires one minute to reload and another minute to re-aim (if necessary). A heavy catapult takes up a space 15 feet across. It is operated by a crew of no less than 6.

Catapult, Light: This is a smaller, lighter version of the catapult. It functions as the heavy catapult. It takes up a space 10 feet across. Some examples are the onager and mangonel. It is operated by a crew of no less than 3.

Ballista: A ballista is essentially a huge crossbow. It takes a creature smaller than large two rounds to reload the ballista after firing. A ballista takes up a space 5 feet across. It is operated by a crew of no less than 2.

Cannon: Early cannons were cast in bronze and were quite large. They throw the same kind of ammunition as catapults, but do so in the manner of a ballista. A heavy cannon takes up a space 10 feet across and has a crew of no less than 6. A light cannon takes up a space 5 feet across and has a crew of no less than 3. A natural ”1” rolled to hit with a cannon means the engine has exploded, dealing 3d6 points of damage to everyone within 10 feet.

Ram: This heavy pole is sometimes suspended from a movable scaffold that allows the crew to swing it back and forth against objects. The character closest to the front of the ram makes an attack roll against the AC of the construction. In addition to the damage given on Table: Siege Engines, up to nine other characters holding the ram can add their strength modifiers to the ram’s damage. It takes at least one huge creature, two large creatures, four medium creatures, or eight small creatures to swing a ram. Tiny creatures cannot use a ram. A ram is typically 30 feet long.

Siege Tower: This device is a massive wooden tower on wheels or rollers that can be rolled up against a wall to allow attackers to scale the tower and thus to get to the top of the wall with cover. The wooden walls are usually 1 foot thick.

A typical siege tower takes up a space 15 feet across. The creatures inside the tower push it at a speed of 10 feet. The eight creatures pushing on the ground floor have cover against missiles.

Table: Siege Engines

ITEM – COST – DAMAGE – RANGE – CREW
Catapult, heavy – 800 gp – 6d6 – 1,000 ft. (100 ft. min.) – 4
Catapult, light –  550 gp – 4d6 – 500 ft. (100 ft. min.) – 2
Ballista – 500 gp – 3d8 – 200 ft. – 1
Cannon, Light – 1,000 gp – 5d6 – 500 ft. – 3
Cannon, Heavy – 2,000 gp – 10d6 – 1,000 ft. – 5
Ram – 1,000 gp – 3d8 – — – 10
Siege tower –  2,000 gp – — – — – 20

DESTROYING WALLS
10-ft. thick stone walls have an AC of 18 and can withstand 500 points of damage on a 10-ft. x 10-ft. section before crumbling. 5-ft. thick stone walls can withstand 250 points of damage on a 10-ft. x 10-ft. section before crumbling.

[The one thing I’m thinking about changing is the whole siege engine bit. I’m thinking about something that doesn’t involve tracking the hit points of a wall section. Something like …

A wall has a damage threshold based on the material (wood, stone, etc.) and the thickness of the wall. If the siege engine damage roll (no hit roll – the damage roll is considered part of the “does it hit the right spot” thing) passes the threshold, it has a percentage chance of toppling the wall, perhaps equal to the amount the damage exceeds the threshold. Maybe there’s also a roll to determine how high up the wall is struck. The type of weapon would also determine the size of the hole created. So – no damage to track, still takes (most likely) many hits to topple a wall.

Let me think out loud for a moment. We’ll say a stone wall has a damage threshold of 20 + 5 per 10 feet of wall. A 20-ft thick stone wall, then, has a damage threshold of 30.

A ballista has no hope of getting through the wall – which is probably right.

A light catapult does 4d6 – so an average of 14, max of 24. That means a light catapult doesn’t have a chance of breaching the wall either.

A heavy catapult does 6d6 – so an average of 21, max of 36. On a max. damage roll, each heavy crossbow has a 6% chance of breaching a wall.

A light cannon does 5d6 – so an average of 18, max of 30. No chance of breaching that wall.

A heavy cannon does 10d6 – so an average of 35 (5% of wall breach), max of 60 (30% chance of wall breach). Heavy cannon are going to knock down most walls, probably in a relatively short time. That’s also pretty accurate.

In all, I think a system like this can work, but I probably need to adjust the numbers a bit.

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Status update, by the way. The only things left to write for the game are some embellishments to the chapter on dungeons, wilderness and cities, and ship combat (which will be a distillation of the ship combat rules I published way back in NOD 2.) The monster chapter is being edited (thanks Tanner), so the end is nigh.

Have some new undead critters coming later today on the blog … see ya then.

Dragon by Dragon … March 1977 (5)

/ jstater / 2 Comments
I dig this cover – this is what D&D games should look like!

Three months into the new year of a new game! Before I get into this issue, I’d like to direct folks over to White Dwarf Wednesdays at Tim Brannan’s blog.

What did the oldsters come up with for this issue? Let’s take a look …

A fantasy story by Gardner Fox shows up in this issue – it’s amazing how many “real authors” showed up in the pages of what was still a pretty new magazine that represented a very new hobby. Maybe these guys didn’t have many offers in the late 1970’s – the golden age of magazine stories and illustration had passed, but still, it’s pretty cool.

The big deal in this issue is the Witchcraft Supplement for Dungeons & Dragons – a title I’m sure served as ammunition for the anti-D&D crusade back in the day. What’s awesome about this article, right off the bat, is that they didn’t know who wrote it, but published it anyhow! Right under the title is a request that the real author please let them know who the heck he or she was.

The article starts off with a bit on how witches can show up on the wilderness encounter table. I always love this stuff – the idea that there is a single, unifying wilderness encounter table for all of D&D, and if we add witches to D&D we have to shoehorn them into the table. Reading these articles, you can’t help but love this weird, new world of gaming that was being grown back in the day.

The first thing you need to know about witchcraft is that witch spells do not affect djinn, efreet or clerics of any alignment. All witches have saves equal to warlocks (I love when they used level titles in place of the level number). Good (i.e. Lawful) witches can perform 7 spells per day, but there is a 4% chance that she is ancient, and is thus a Priestess who can cast 10 spells per day and 1 of her own special spells once per week. Why 4%? God only knows.

A few of the new Lawful witch spells are calm (which turned into calm emotions), summon elemental (12 HD) – which lasts while she concentrates, rejuvenation (reduces age by 5 years), dissipation (disperses elementals, clouds, mist and magic wall spells) and comfort. Priestesses get several new spells – youth, influence, banish any one creature, enchantment (produces any one magic ring, potion, misc. weapon, misc. magic item) and seek.

Black witchcraft includes pit, fire box, diminish plant/animal/men, plant entrapment, paralyzing pit (!), undead control, aging, circle of blindness, curse, poison touch and curtain wall. Many of these spells have modern versions – I don’t if they originated in this article or if it’s just a coincidence.

Now we get an explanation for the Secret Order witches … they were designed to challenge high level wizards and magic weapon-armed lords when traveling through the wilderness. Necessity is the mother of witches, apparently. They have some additional new spells and several special weapons. Lots of great material here – hornet cape, assassin’s eyes – find this issue and read away.

James M. Ward now chimes in with “Some Ideas Missed in Metamorphosis Alpha” – basically some things that should have been in the rulebook but were not. Kinda taking a mulligan here. He also adds “Tribal Society and Hierarchy on Board the Starship Warden”. Good stuff – apparently the dominant lifeforms on the Warden are the wolfoids and androids.

This issue’s Creature Feature is the ankheg. Again, the statblock is a bit chaotic. Since the ankheg is open content (and old as the hills), I’ll reproduce it below …

Number appearing: 1-6
Description: 10-20 feet long, brown chitin overall, pink underside
Armor class: 2 overall, underside class 4
Movement: 12/6 through ground
Hit die: 3-8 (8 sided die)
% in lair: 25%
Treasure: B2
Squirt acid for 1-6 die of damage according to size
Bite for 3-18 points damage
Magic resistance: none
Alignment: neutral

These babies can sure deal some damage!

Next is the letters section. My favorite bit is a guy describing his campaign world:

“Although it is not our own Earth, it is only about eleven light years from our world, and therefore most of the culture is a parallel of our ancient cultures.”

True scientific realism, indeed!

Gygax now chimes in with How Green Was My Mutant, with random tables on determining the appearance of humanoids in Metamorphosis Alpha. Naturally, I need to roll one up:

Skin/Hair Coloration: Brown
Skin Characteristic: Knobby
Color Pattern: Whorles
Head: Bulbous
Neck: Wattled
Body: Long
Facial Features: No nose
Hands and Feet: Wide
Fingers and Toes: Four of each
Arms: Normal
Legs: Thin

Damn – that’s one good looking fella! Best thing about the tables, to me, is that it’s almost impossible to roll anything like a normal looking human being, which is as it should be.

I won’t cover Fox’s tale Beyond the Wizard Fog, as Jamie Mal has done a fine job of that himself. (Google it, darlings)

Charles Preston Goforth, Jr. (fake name? has to be a fake name) provides new rules for magical research with one year of playtesting (real time) and nine years in game time!

Essentially, they give you 10 levels of spells with a percentage chance of success, time required and the gold piece investment.  The chance of success appears to always be 20% or 100%, depending on how much gold is spent. A 1st level spell, for example, costs you 2,000 gp for a 20% chance of success, or 10,000 gp for a 100% chance of success. 10th level spells (whatever the heck they are) cost 5.12 million gp for a 100% chance of success.

There are some restrictions on spells to permanently increase stats (including spell levels up to 18th). I pity the poor wizard who sunk several million gold pieces into increasing their intelligence when they could have waited a couple decades for 3rd edition and done it for free.

Armor and weapons can be enchanted up to +1 with 2 months of work and 2,000 gp. “Serious enchanting”, as he puts it, requires 10 months and 10,000 gp. I have a weird feeling this system would very quickly get out of hand!

Bill Seligman now gives us one of the classic articles of the old school – Gandalf Was Only a Fifth Level Magic-User. The best point of the article, to me, is to hopefully make people see just how incredible the average 1st level magic-user really would be in the “real world”. Still, Seligman was clearly an early model of Raggi in terms of bringing out the nerd rage.

Garrison Ernst now presents another installment of The Gnome Cache. No – I didn’t read this one either – too dang much writing to get done.

And that rounds up the first issue of 1977. The vitality in the early game, and the presence of so many gamer archetypes that linger to the modern day makes these magazines great fun to read.

Phlegethon, The 7th Circle

/ jstater

And now we’re into the 7th circle of Hell, Phlegethon. Here’s a preview …

After the crowded, dangerous cityscape of Dis, it’s nice to settle back into the bleak, dangerous wilderness that dominates most of Hell.

Phlegethon is the seventh circle of Hell, wherein the violent are imprisoned for eternity. It is divided into four different landscapes – bleak highlands, the boiling river of Phlegethon, a tangled woodland of despair and a salty desert caressed by rains of fiery flakes.

The only way to enter Phlegethon is by hitching a ride on Geryon, the reigning prince of Phlegethon. The circle is ringed by 10 mile high walls of granite and quartz, at the tops of which is the vast, sprawling city of Dis.

Myriad caves open in these walls, sending the dank waters of the Styx in waterfalls to fall in the highlands, blanketing them with a red mist. The grandest cave, replete with sparkling quartzes serves as the palace of Geryon.

The reddish liquid of the Styx forms streams and rivulets that flow into the boiling Phlegethon, where shades who dedicated themselves to violence in life are anchored to a depth commensurate to the level of their sins. The craggy, damp hills are home to many oozes and fungi, not to mention the minotaurs of Baphomet, medusas of Stheno and Euryale and savage centaurs of Chiron.

The highlands end at the banks of the Phlegethon, where the centaurs patrol in armies, keeping the shades interred in their boiling punishment. Vandals (shades that escaped the Phlegethon) roam the highlands, keeping its cities and fortresses in a constant state of ruin. The highlands ever ring with the clash of sword and shield, so bring plenty of hit points if you’re planning to spend much time there.

Beyond the boiling river is a gnarled woodland of twisted, black trees with human faces. These are the shades of people who committed violence to themselves in life, their bodies twisted into the shapes of trees that moan and grasp at hair and clothing. Harpies and hell hounds pursue the Profligates through these woods.

The innermost landscape of Phlegethon is a desert of life draining salt. The salt wastes are wandered by the blasphemers and userers, who carry their heavy purses chained round their necks. The salt wastes end at miles-high cliffs that overlook the mountains and jungle valleys of Malebolge, the eighth and penultimate circle of Hell.

Dangers of Phlegethon

As with all of Hell, Phlegethon is not entirely welcoming to life. It has several specific dangers to watch for.

Dehydration: The salt wastes of Phlegethon aren’t just bone dry, they suck the moisture out of living bodies. Living creatures must double their normal water intake here or suffer 1d4 points of constitution damage per day. After two days, living creatures feel their tongues swell and lips crack, and they are unable to speak properly (i.e. no more spells boys and girls!). After three days, one’s skin is so dry that it begins to flake off. Movement is reduced to half and salt insinuates itself into open cracks in the skin, imposing a -2 penalty to all attacks and saves due to pain.

Depression: The woodlands are not just dismal, they suck at one’s will to live. Each day in the woods, one must pass a saving throw or be struck by despair (as the crushing despair or emotion spell). Those who succumb to despair become beacons for the monsters of the woods, and subsequently wandering monsters are encountered on a roll of 1-3 on 1d6.

Phelegethon: The Phlegethon is a boiling river, with flaming oil above and super-heated water below. Touching the water inflicts damage per round based upon how much of one’s body is exposed: 1d6 for a single limb or head, 3d6 for half of one’s body and 6d6 for one’s entire body.

Races of Phlegethon

Phlegethon, like most of the other circles of Hell, is not only inhabited by pitchfork-carrying devils and their victims. Four races known to people of the surface world dwell in Phlegethon, though these races have been changed in many ways by their habitation in Hell.

Centaurs: The centaurs of Phlegethon’s highlands are large creatures, wild and unruly and with blazing eyes. They are immune to fire.

CENTAUR: HD 8; AC 4 [15]; Atk 2 kicks (1d8) or longbow (1d8); Move 18; Save 8; CL/XP 9/1100; Special: Immune to fire.

Harpies: The harpies of the dismal woodlands almost have the appearance of angels – porcelain skin, icy blue eyes, white, feathered wings – but marred with a cruel visages and black talons.

HARPY: HD 6; AC 5 [14]; Atk 2 talons (1d6); Move 6 (Fly 18); Save 11; CL/XP 8/800; Special: Flight, siren-song, magic resistance (30%).

Medusas: Phlegethon’s medusas have skin as hard and green as malachite.

MEDUSA: HD 8; AC 1 [18]; Atk 2 claws (1d6) and snake bites (1d4 + poison); Move 9; Save 8; CL/XP 10/1400; Special: Gaze turns to stone, poison, half damage from non-magical weapons.

Minotaurs: The minotaurs of Phlegethon have the heads of Brahma bulls, as white as snow, and the bodies of gorillas. They are especially cunning, and are immune to mind control and illusion.

MINOTAUR: HD 8+4; AC 4 [15]; Atk Head butt (2d6), bite (1d6) and battleaxe (1d10); Move 12; Save 8; CL/XP 9/1100; Special: Never get lost in labyrinths, immune to mind control and illusion.

Lords of Phlegethon

Several archdevils and demon lords make their home in Phlegethon. The great lord of all the circle is Geryon, who dwells above the landscape of Phlegethon and rarely imposes himself on those below.

The master of the highlands is Baphomet, demon lord of minotaurs and wayward crusaders, who fights ceaseless battles against his ambitious rivals – Gorson, Caym and the sisters Stheno and Euryale.

Amduscias claims overlordship of the woodlands, but must contend with Marchosias, the chief of hell hounds, Eurynome, demon prince of ghouls and lacedons, and Ipes, the chief of the hezrou.

The desert is firmly under the control of Moloch, who savages all who would challenge his dominion. His vassals are Gremory and Uvall.

Comic Mockery – Cave Girl

/ jstater / 3 Comments

Honestly, this is probably the last jungle comic I can handle. Great art by Bob Powell, written by Gardner Fox … but the comic book jungles are thick with the danger of unkind stereotypes. Still, we’ll press on through this one and see if there’s anything worth while.

As always, this one was found at the Comic Book Catacombs!

I dig the term “morass country” – I’ll have to steal that one for the Pwenet/Kush hexcrawl (coming soon!). That bit at the end is what a saving throw looks like – or maybe just a missed attack roll. The art is by Bob Powell, who was known for his “good girl” art. Good indeed. Nice action shots as well – he could draw more than just a pretty face.

“Fat One” – nice. I suppose the elephant was trying to kill them, but is it really necessary to hurt the beast’s self esteem. We’ve gone a couple pages so far and no unkind stereotypes yet, so it’s looking pretty good.

Ah, spoke too soon. Well, if Eisner’s Spirit can be forgiven, maybe Cave Girl can as well. Impressive display of super powers from the kid though (invulnerability III, perhaps).

Wild time in the old town tonight, though, isn’t it. First an explosion, then a crazy guy with a knife. One question, though – is that guy rabid, or did he just go berserk while he was shaving. Or, in the words of a half-dozen Marvel comic book covers … “Is he both?”

Wonderful stroke of luck, those two shriners with outrageous English accents showing up to help. Still, this does diffuse the stereotype problem a little.

Here, Cave Girl makes a case for being a druid (or my beastlord variation thereof) – speak with animals, calm animals, etc. The chick in the last panel looks like she’s trying to pass a brick.

Nice action here – knee to the chin ranks right up there with face kicking. And a real waaa-waaa-waaaaaaa moment at the end. The woman who brought Cave Girl into town looks like an oompa loompa at the end.

I dig the art in this one, and the story isn’t any worse than was typical for the genre/time period. Cave Girl almost made the cut into the Mystery Men! rulebook, but I decided to stick with the more classic concept of superheroes. Here are some stats, though, for those who want to do a little knee-to-the-chin action themselves …

CAVE GIRL, Adventurer 14 (Jungle Girl)
STR 7 (+2) | DEX 7 (+2) | CON 7 (+2) | INT 3 (+0) | WIL 7 (+2) | CHA 7 (+2)
HP 88 | DC 16 | ATK +11 (+13 melee, +13 ranged) | SPD 2 | XP 29,500

Ability Boosts: Str +1, Dex +5, Con +5, Int +2, Wil +2, Cha +3

Powers: Calm Emotions (Animals Only), Catfall, Invulnerability I, Jump, Speak With Animals

Gear: Leopard skin, flower in hair

Maneuvers and Monsters

/ jstater / 10 Comments

The magic section is almost completely edited, leaving just the monsters to go before this baby is (almost) ready for publishing. Last week, I finally figured out how I wanted to handle “encounter levels” – i.e. how tough is a fight? Today I thought of another way to handle special maneuvers in combat. Here’s a sample of each – let me know what you think.

[Oh, more previews from the final three circles of Hell and the B&T monster stats are on the way. As soon as I’m finished with B&T and the Rappan Athuk conversions, I’m going to get into 1800 – American Empires. I’m jonesin’ for some Napoleonic fantasy!]

Encounter Levels
First question from the Old Schoolers is, of course, why? The answer has nothing to do with balance (sorta). The real answer is “treasure”. If you’re not using something akin to “treasure types” for the monsters, and I’m not, you need a guide to how tough killing something is to determine the value of its stuff. It also helps dungeon designers, especially the new ones, to determine just how tough a given encounter is. If you’re designing a game for some 5th level characters and you overload it with impossible encounters, you’ve just designed yourself a shitty game. I know the concept of “balance” has been decried of late, and I agree with the sentiment when balance equals “make sure the players win”, but obviously the old school cared about balance as well, if not then there would be no need for racial level limits, more XP to be a magic-user and paladin or the concept of dungeons getting tougher as one descended into them.

The B&T system, in a nutshell is as follows:

A group of 3 to 5 monsters of a given “challenge level” is a challenging encounter for a party of that same average level. In other words, four ogres is a challenging encounter for a 4th level party of adventurers (assuming most parties contain 4 to 6 characters).

Two monsters of a challenge level equal to the average party level +1 is also a challenging encounter, as is one monster of a CL equal to the average party level +2.

Likewise, if you’re throwing lesser monsters at a party, you throw more at them. It goes something like this …

This, of course, begs the question: How do you calculate a monster’s Challenge Level?

I’m glad you asked. A monster with no special abilities has a CL equal to its HD. Thus, ogres, which have 4 HD and no special powers (big and ugly isn’t a power) have a CL of 4. Monsters with various minor powers (yeah, minor and major powers are defined in the rules) have a CL equal to their HD +1. Monsters with major powers have a CL equal to their HD +2. Pretty simple, and so far it has held true in the play tests.

SPECIAL MANEUVERS
I want special maneuvers in the game to be (1) easy to run and (2) worth while. All too often, I see people giving special maneuvers a try and regretting it later – while they were trying to trip the ogre, the ogre was just beating the crap out of them. As the rules usually go, it makes very little sense to do anything but attack. In reality, this is probably the case. Most of the ARMA fights I’ve seen involve wailing on your opponent with a sword rather than jumping around like a Hollywood stunt man. But B&T is, like most fantasy RPG’s, based not on the real middle ages, but rather on pulp fantasy stories and fairy tales, and Conan liked to get tricky.

The current system involved making an attack against a special AC that you had to calculate based on the maneuver. The new one doesn’t bother with that. Instead, it is modeled on the current combat system, with the two-pronged “attack” and “damage” concept. In essence, D&D combat separates combatants in two ways. You have an attack against a set AC. The attack improves as the attacker gains levels, but the AC, in general (monks don’t count here, dang them) does not, other than high level characters often have better equipment.

The “damage” side works the opposite way. The damager’s level doesn’t matter much (again, please ignore the dang monk) other than high level characters maybe having better equipment, but the hit points being damaged do scale with the defender’s level.

In other words, if you have two guys in padded armor with clubs, and one is a 1st level fighter and the other a 12th level fighter, the 12th level fighter has a much better chance of hitting his opponent, though his damage per round is about the same. He also has a much better chance of absorbing his opponent’s hits, even though his Armor Class is about the same.

So – Special Maneuvers. In essence, the attacker needs to hit a set AC based on the maneuver being attempted (i.e. the AC doesn’t improve just because the defender is higher level or has more HD). If the attacker hits, the defender rolls a saving throw to avoid the special effect of the maneuver, so the defender’s skill/power does make a difference. In addition, if the attacker’s attack would have penetrated the defender’s normal AC, he scores some damage (often unarmed attack damage).

Naturally, there are a few provisos and quid pro quos … mostly involving what weapons you can use for some of these maneuvers (that’s what those numbers in brackets in the table above refer to). Hopefully, this makes attempting a special maneuver more attractive and keeps the process pretty simple.

Oh – also – Captain Kirk!

So – special manuevers.

Dragon by Dragon – December 1976 (4)

/ jstater / 3 Comments

The Dragon closed out 1976 with an issue dedicated to The Empire of the Petal Throne – they even added 4 pages to the magazine to handle all the goodness.

Full disclosure … as long as I’ve been playing D&D and learning about it, I still know relatively little about MAR Barker’s baby. I know the basics and the general history, but it’s always seemed like a setting that required immersion to really grok.

The December issue kicks off with what we would now refer to as a campaign log by the man himself, MAR Barker, updating folks on the going’s-on of Tekumel (really a follow-up to a similar article published in the final issue of “The Strategic Review”. I mostly found this one interesting because it serves as a glimpse into another style of campaign play. Early in the aricle, Barker explains the need (or at least desire) to coordinate the various campaigns in Tekumel to avoid “parallel universe” development. Each DM back in the day really WAS his or her campaign. When you played with a DM, you visited his little universe. I think you’ll find a similar sentiment in the FLAILSNAILs concept.

Next up – James M. Ward provides some notes on Androids on the starship Warden. The androids, it seems, play the role of doppelgangers, taking positions of power among the human tribes and keeping them in conflict with the mutants so that the androids are free to continue their drive for power.  I dig that he refers to them as the “chemical men”. I also dig that the “history” of the androids was supplied by “Emaj the fat mutant philosopher as translated by Yra the Wise.” Honestly, if your not making weird plays on your name and inserting them liberally into your campaign, you just ain’t doin’ it Old School.

Steven Klein provides a random encounter table for the foreign quarter of Jakalla, a city of Tekumel. In essence, this isn’t much different from Gary’s city encounter table in the old DMG. Watch out for the priests of the Goddess of the Pale Bone!

MAR Barker now chimes in again with notes on war gaming in Tekumel. Like Gygax and Arneson, Barker was a war gamer, and here he gives a report on the Battle of the Temple of Chanis: 2020 A.S. as a way of introducing people to the military thinking on Tekumel. He introduces the idea of “Little War” battles that are like duel battles and “Great War” battles that involve hundreds and thousands of troops. The idea of battles that mostly revolve around challenges between individuals in the two forces reminds me of stories from Celtic antiquity, and it’s not a bad way to handle some mass battles in your game without having to deal with actual war games. The length of the invented history of this battle (well, probably play report from his game) suggests how immersed people were in the game … it’s a long article to read just to learn about something that never actually handled.

The Creature Feature presents two creatures from Tekumel, the Mihalli and Vriyagga, both getting some nice color art. In S&W terms, they would have the following stats:

Mihalli: HD 3; AC 1 [18]; Atk1 weapon; Move 15; Save 14; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Magic spells, shape-change, magic items.

The Mihalli were non-humans that had subterranean spy facilities that were wiped out with nuclear fission bombs. Only a few now persist. They are hermaphroditic humanoids with skin that ranges from dull green to coppery brown that signify their class – green for lower, coppery brown for upper. They are shape-changers who are sometimes given away (20%) by their opalescent red eyes. All are magic-users and most have magic items, including the wonderfully named Ball of Immediate Eventuation, which can fire energy bolts, create defense shields against non-magical projectiles (I think we call it shield these days), cause their users to become invisible and produce clouds of poisonous gas. They come in various strengths, indicated by their colors.

Vriyagga, Small: HD 10; AC 1 [19]; Atk 4 tentacles (2d6 + constrict) and bite (1d6 + poison); Move 8; Save 5; CL/XP 12/2000; Special: Tentacles up to 10 feet long.

Vriyagga, Medium: HD 15; AC 1 [19]; Atk 4 tentacles (4d6 + constrict) and bite (1d8 + poison); Move 12; Save 3; CL/XP 17/3500; Special: Tentacles up to 20 feet long.

Vriyagga, Large: HD 25; AC 1 [19]; Atk 4 tentacles (6d6 + constrict) and bite (1d10 + poison); Move 15; Save 3; CL/XP 27/6500; Special: Tentacles up to 40 feet long.

These babies are excellent – two giant wheels with knotted muscles around a central spoke, brain pans hanging from that with weird faces from which extend four tentacles covered in suckers and a mouth lined with poisonous, purple feelers. They have ebon eyes that can see in the dark. The tentacles are very tough (AC 2 [17] to sever). Vriyagga enjoy the taste of juicy humans over the pale shrimp-things who they normally dine on.

Gary Jaquet now gives us “Miscellaneous Treasure, Magic, Weapons, Artifacts and Monsters – Additions, Deletions, Omissions, Corrections, Changes, Variations and Otherwise Confusing Alterations” etc.  This is a comedy bit with things like Creeping Crud (resembles cigarette butts, crushed Fritos, spilled Dr. Pepper, sweat from players’ foreheads and referees’ dice rolling arm, pencil shavings and old character cards), dice lice, etc.

Jerry Westergaard presents some fiction – “Roads from Jakalla”. This, along with the other articles by Barker, do a good job of presenting the setting.

Another side bar presents the old “Generals can do X, Colonels can do Y … Privates can do everything” bit, only starting with 22nd level wizards and working down to Referees.

Wargaming World – no author credit – examines the new miniature lines for EPT and D&D. The reproductions of the miniatures are almost impossible to see, so, not much help really.

Page 29 does have an interesting bit – maybe the first appearance of Appendix N. Titled “Fantasy/Swords & Sorcery: Recommended Reading From Gary Gygax”. It goes from Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions to Roger Zelazny’s Jack of Shadows (etal), Lord of Light and Nine Princes of Amber series.

Fineous Fingers gives a nice demonstration of “climbing sheer walls” for thieves.

Page 31 gives the percentile chance for obtaining an “Eye” as treasure in EPT, and the issue then ends with some pictures (boy were they hard to reproduce back in the day) of a scale model of the Temple of Vimuhla.

Not a bad issue if you want to wade into Tekumel and test the waters, and if you can’t find something to do with the Vriyagga, you just aren’t trying.

Three Bad Bishops, You Know So Well

/ jstater / 6 Comments

Let’s review, for a moment, the cleric.

The cleric was the original middle child of D&D – stuck square between the magic-user and fighter in terms of spell use and fighting ability – and the first class born from play, rather than the Chainmail rulebook. Legend has it that Sir Fang, a vampire character (yes, monster characters are as D&D as apple pie is American), was proving troublesome, so somebody decided they needed a Van Helsing* to deal with the rapscallion.

* Side Note: If you want to thoroughly understand the undead of D&D, you need to watch the Universal and Hammer horror films. Never understood the whole “vampire energy drain touch” thing? Watch Captain Kronos. You’ll understand. Plus Caroline Munro …

So, the cleric, as it was introduced into the rules, became a mix of Van Helsing vampire hunter and medieval bishop-of-war, with the stylistic emphasis on the latter rather than the former. Who were these battling bishops of the Middle Ages, you ask? Read on …

ADHEMAR OF LE PUY, BISHOP OF PUY-EN-VELAY

Adhemar (totally made up name, right?) hailed from France, and he plays an important part in the First Crusade. You can see him to the right, wearing the mitre*

* Side Note: If your 9th level cleric doesn’t enter dungeon fully armored and wearing a mitre, he should be stripped of his clerical powers and forever consigned to being a second-rate fighter. No Lawful or Chaotic deity worth his salt should forgive the sin of “awesome headgear aversion” in his followers.

He was paired up on the crusade with a bunch of stupid fighting-men who quarreled all the time over leadership, but managed to keep things focused with his spiritual leadership throughout the ordeal. When he died (probably of disease*), some claimed that he pulled the old Obi Wan trick (remember, Star Wars was a “long time ago”, so it technically occurred before the First Crusade) and returned as a ghost to cheer the foot soldiers on.

BISHOP ADHEMAR, LAWFUL CLERIC 9: HP 24; AC 15; ATK 1 longsword +6 (1d8); MV 30; SV F 10, R 12, W 8; Special: Turn undead, cleric spells (6/5/4/3/2/1); Gear: Chainmail, longsword, mitre, holy symbol, warhorse; Abilities: STR 12; INT 13; WIS 15; DEX 12; CON 8; CHA 14.

* Side Note: Died of disease? Hello! Cure disease – low level spell – what’s the deal? Well, it turns out that many of these bishops, uninformed of the D&D rules, used edged weapons and thus were unable to cast spells. Fortunately, fighting bishops of the future will be forewarned.

ODO, EARL OF KENT, BISHOP OF BAYEUX

Half-brother to William the Conqueror (a 9th or 10th level fighting man in his own right), Odo has one of the great names in the history of names (but far behind this guy). In fact, whenever I’m writing high-level clerics in a medieval milieu, it’s all I can do to avoid naming all of them Odo.

Odo is a little more “traditional D&D cleric” than the others, or at least pretended to be. Apparently, the Bayeux Tapestry (according to that shining light of accuracy Wikipedia) belabors the fact that he did not actually shed blood during the battle, and he is pictured armed with a club rather than an edged weapon urging the soldiers to battle – perhaps with a bless spell.

Odo also, apparently, gained his fortune by killing things (well, people) and taking their stuff, which I think cements him as a true D&D cleric, albeit a chaotic one. He joined the First Crusade (see above), but died before he actually got there, thus robbing the crusaders of some very useful cure (or cause) wounds spells.

BISHOP ODO, CHAOTIC CLERIC 9: HP 35; AC 15; ATK 1 club +7 (1d4+1); MV 30; SV F 9, R 12, W 9; Special: Rebuke undead, cleric spells (6/5/4/3/2/1); Gear: Chainmail, club, holy symbol, warhorse; Abilities: STR 14; INT 12; WIS 9; DEX 9; CON 12; CHA 12.

TURPIN, ARCHBISHOP OF REIMS

Turpin is no mere bishop. He’s an archbishop (so, 12th level, I guess). Turpin lived a few centuries before the other two in this post, and he was one of the Twelve Peers of Charlemagne and a pal of Roland. Some of the legends of Turpin might be confused with his predecessor, Milo, a “warrior clerk” (i.e. cleric).

In any event, Turpin was a bad-ass, and he wielded a magic sword called Almace (“Almighty”) that may have been forged by Wayland (the god-smith, not the puppeteer). A comparison of the three magic swords of the romances of Roland declared Kurt the least, Almace the second and Durendal the finest, so naturally I’ll assume Kurt is a +1 sword, Almace +2 and Durendal +3 (it’s science, dude).

ARCHBISHOP TURPIN, LAWFUL CLERIC 12: HP 34; AC 16; ATK Almace +11 (1d8+3); MV 20; SV F 7, R 11, W 7; Special: Turn undead, cleric spells (6/6/5/4/3/2/2); Gear: Banded mail, Almace (+2 longsword), holy symbol, warhorse; Abilities: STR 13; INT 11; WIS 16; DEX 9; CON 10; CHA 14.

Amazons, Archons and Azers

/ jstater / 2 Comments

I’m now working my through the monster chapter doing a first pass on editing before it goes to Tanner for a more thorough look, and I decided “Why not preview a few monsters on the blog”. (i.e. I needed a quick and easy post for the day because I’m busy as spit).

I figure this can give folks an idea about the format (different than in earlier previews – a format I liked but just became too difficult to layout effectively and make the info easy for the TK to access during play) and maybe preview a few of the new monsters in the game.

AMAZON
Medium Humanoid, Alignment Varies, Average Intelligence; Company (1d20)

HD: 1 + 1
AC: 16 (chainmail and shield)
ATK: Longsword (1d8+1) or longbow (100 ft., 1d8+1)
MV: 30
SV: F 15, R 13, W 15
XP: 100 (CL 2)

Amazons are humanoid females who are expert warriors. All amazons are uncommonly tall and handsome. They come in three varieties, named after the color of their skin; the blue amazons, green amazons and red amazons. All amazons eschew accepting males into their society, but do require them for mating. Male humans are often taken by them in raids, mated with, and then sent on their way. Boys born onto the island are given to mercenary bands composed of the sons of amazons. These men, who lack the special abilities of their mothers, are called myrmidons. They look like their fathers, but their eye color and personality matches their mother.

Blue amazons are Lawful (LG) and worship the goddess of wisdom and war. Their skin is deep azure and they have hair that shines like silver. They are the wisest of the amazons, and enjoy a magic resistance of 10% and immunity to surprise. Blue amazons fight in close-knit ranks with spears and shields and they wear platemail (AC 19). They are usually led by clerics or paladins.

Green amazons are Neutral (N) and worship the goddess of the hunt. Their skin is jade green and their hair dark, forest green. Green amazons dwell in the woodlands, spending their days hunting. They can survive and track as well as rangers and can attack twice per round with their longbows. They are usually led by druids or rangers.

Red amazons are Chaotic (CE) and worship the goddess of black magic. Their skin is vivid crimson and their hair jet black. Red amazons fight as berserkers, attacking twice per round with their long swords, and they are immune to fear. They are usually led by chaos clerics or warlocks.

Organization: Band of 80 warriors plus 50% non-combatants plus leader of 4th to 7th level (1d4+3).

ARCHON
Archons are celestials that are not unlike angels, but of an inferior class. Archons speak Celestial, Infernal, and Draconic, but can speak with almost any creature using tongues.

A righteous aura surrounds archons that fight or get angry. Any hostile creature within a 20-foot radius of an archon must succeed on a Will save to resist its effects. Those who fail take a –2 penalty on attacks, AC, and saves for 24 hours or until they successfully hit the archon.

Spells: Continuous—magic circle against evil, tongues; At will—teleport

HOUND ARCHON
Medium Outsider, Lawful (LG), Average Intelligence; Pack (1d6)

HD: 6
AC: 19 [+1]
ATK: Bite (1d8) and slam (1d4) or +1 greatsword (2d6) and bite (1d8)
MV: 40
SV: F 10, R 10, W 10; +4 save vs. poison
XP: 3,000 (CL 8)

Hound archons look like well-muscled humans with canine heads. Hound archons prefer to attack with their natural weapons but occasionally use +1 greatswords.

A hound archon can assume any canine form of small to large size. While in canine form, the hound archon loses its bite, slam, and greatsword attacks, but gains the bite attack of the form it chooses.

Once per day, a hound archon can attempt to smite a Chaotic creature, doing double damage if it hits.

Special Qualities: Immune to electricity and petrification, magic resistance 15%

Spells: Continuous—magic circle against evil, tongues; At will—aid, continual flame, detect evil, message, teleport

LANTERN ARCHON
Small Outsider, Lawful (LG), Low Intelligence; Gleam (1d6)

HD: 1
AC: 15 [+1]
ATK: 2 light rays (30 ft., 1d6)
MV: Fly 60
SV: F 14, R 12, W 14; +4 save vs. poison
XP: 250 (CL 3)

Lantern archons appear as floating balls of light that glow about as brightly as a torch. Only their destruction can extinguish the glow, though they can try to hide it. A lantern archon has little reason to get within melee range. It usually hovers just close enough to bring the enemy within its aura of menace and then blasts away with its light rays. Lantern archons prefer to concentrate on a single opponent, seeking to reduce enemy numbers quickly.

Special Qualities: Immune to electricity and petrification

Spells: Continuous—magic circle against evil, tongues; At will— aid, detect evil, continual flame

TRUMPET ARCHON
Medium Outsider, Lawful (LG), High Intelligence; Blast (1d6)

HD: 12
AC: 23 [+1]
ATK: +2 greatsword (3d6)
MV: 40 (Fly 90)
SV: F 7, R 7, W 6; +4 save vs. poison
XP: 3,000 (CL 14)

Trumpet archons are angelic humanoids that carry long, silver trumpets. If forced into an extended battle, the archon sounds its trumpet and attacks with a vengeance. An archon’s trumpet produces music of utter clarity, piercing beauty, and, if the trumpet archon wills it, paralyzing awe. All creatures except archons within 100 feet of the blast must succeed on a Fortitude saving throw or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds. The archon can also command its trumpet to become a +2 greatsword. If a trumpet is stolen, it becomes a chunk of useless metal until the owner can recover it. Woe betides the thief caught with one.

Special Qualities: Immune to electricity and petrification, magic resistance 30%

Spells: Continuous—magic circle against evil, tongues; At will—detect evil, continual flame, message

AZER
Medium Outsider (Fire), Lawful (LN), Average Intelligence; Squad (1d6)

HD: 2
AC: 21 (Scale, shield)
ATK: Battleaxe (1d8 + 1 fire)
MV: 30
SV: F 12, R 12, W 12
XP: 200 (CL 3)

Azers are dwarf-like beings native to the Elemental Plane of Fire. They wear kilts of brass, bronze, or copper and speak Fire Elemental and Dwarf (50% chance). Although unfriendly and taciturn, azers rarely provoke a fight except to relieve a foe of gems, which they love. Azers wield broad-headed spears or well-crafted hammers. An azer’s body is intensely hot, so its unarmed attacks and metal weapons deal extra fire damage.

Special Qualities: Immune to fire, magic resistance 5%, vulnerable to cold

Organization: Clan of 100 azer plus 50% non-combatants plus 7 HD leader

AZERS AS CHARACTERS
Azer characters modify their starting ability scores as follows: Str +1, Int +1, Cha -2. They have darkvision to a range of 60 and retain the special abilities of normal azer. Azer speak Fire Elemental, and may also speak the other elemental tongues and Celestial, Dwarf and Infernal. Azer can multi-class as cleric/fighters, fighter/magic-users and fighter/ thieves. Whatever their class, they can only advance to a max of 6th level.

Will Kaanga Rue the Day He Met Bwana Black-Jaw?

/ jstater / 2 Comments

See what I did there? Kaanga. Rue. Yeah – spent more time on the title than the rest of the post. As always, a hearty thanks to the Comic Book Catacombs for posting this story. Away we go …

Right off the bat, I defy you to figure out what the @#$#%$ is going on. The story reads like they removed every other panel. We start off with the finest jungle comic book poetry ever written (“Devil-Devil Wind”, because the benighted love using the same word twice in a row to provide emphasis).

First, Ann watches Kaanga spear a panther in the chest. Fair enough – the predator might have had is coming. Next, she asks why they are stopping while Kaanga seemingly glues his canoe back together. Stopping when … why … where are they … what? Finally, Kaanga smells a guy in the forest, gets pissed and picks up his bola. [Note, Kaanga has a bola, so he’s officially playing by the Companion rules].

The story doesn’t get much clearer here. Because a man riding an antelope* doesn’t see Kaanga hiding behind a plant, his guilt is proven. In response, Kaanga does the only responsible thing – he throws a bola at him and then threatens him. M’bala now mutters something incoherent about white men, fire-eaters and demons (could be the blow to the skull he just received from those rocks) and Kaanga responds that, yes, he knew it all along. Knew what all along?

* Yeah, even my favorite thing – people riding animals that God and nature have deemed un-ride-able doesn’t rescue this stinker. Alas!

Kaanga and Ann now mount their zebras (awesome, but, no, still not enough) and head to the village, where the villagers send them to the Valley of Leopards (probably because they don’t want the Aryan with the itchy finger and doped eyes anywhere near their kids).

We close with a very lost toucan – perhaps on his own search for colorful, fruity breakfast cereal.

“Bones of a lost temple” is good, I’ll admit that. Might use it myself one of these days. As a long-time fan of Jonny Quest, I have to nod approvingly at “AI-EEE!” being used not once, but twice on the same page.

Ah, the plot thickens. Blackie Rawls wants to screw up Capt. Clyde Ankers contract with European zoos! The fiend! In the last panel, Kaanga’s hurry to save Ann from the arrow causes him to inadvertently snap her neck. Oh well – time to find a new henchwoman!

See – tribesmen mounted on antelopes and zebras killing in the name of Flame God. This really should be something wonderful. Pity. One thing does inspire me though …

Drum of Command: This item looks like a large bongo. When struck, all who can hear the drum must pass a (Will) saving throw or be whipped into a frenzy (per the barbarian’s rage) and attack whomever the drummer indicates for 1d6 rounds. Fear effects counter the effect of the magic drum.

The giant flaming bird-glider is a nice touch. Those contracts are as good as broken! Oh Blackie, you scoundrel!

See “Then the flame-kite crashing as M’bala’s treachery saw a chance –” is not a sentence. Damn close, but not a sentence.

Nevertheless, Kaanga takes one to the dome and out he goes. The kite explodes, the panther escapes back into the jungle (plot point, I’m thinking) and Ann and Capt. Clyde are taken prisoner.

So, is Blackie freeing the animals out of a sense of kindness?

So, Blackie has given his minions a false sense of confidence in themselves while ruining zoo contracts. I just don’t know …

“A savage surge of bull-ape’s might …” is another fantastic line. We now finally know what the heck was happening in the first panel (it was a preview!). We also now know that Kaanga’s war cry is “Haa-Ree!”. Please work that one into your next game for me. Thanks!

Kaanga uses a signal-smoke (or, if you’re 99% of English speakers, a smoke signal) to signal the lancers and heads off on the trail of the bad guys. Spider-Man shows up in panel two, chasing a monkey, and then we’re looking at the lost temple of the fire gods, one of whom must be called Zom. Again, I really should be enjoying this more than I am.

Blackie brags about the fact that his plan is so intricate and clever that they’ll never pin it on him. Pin what on him? Who the $%@#$% hell knows, though it is worth mentioning that everyone involved in the story is already 100% aware that he’s behind it all. I guess the lack of evidence will be important in the Superior Court of Jungle Law.

And then we find out just what Blackie Rawls is after. He wants Capt. Clyde’s contract. That’s it. That’s the whole dang caper. Tribal war, murder, etc. for a zoo contract. No diamonds, no King Solomon’s Mines. A zoo contract. The stuff legends are made of.

“Your head is mine!” Really sums it all up, doesn’t it. I take it back. Forget the war cry. In your next game (this week, this weekend, whenever), please make sure you yell “Your head is mine!” while attacking at least once. Maybe twice.

I like the last panel.

Angry Dude: “They betray us! KILL!”

M’bala: “No! The fire-thrower is a wizard – strike!”

Apparently M’bala is still aiming for better working conditions and a pension plan.

And so we come to the end of our tale. Kaanga punches M’bala in the face, the fire gods ride off on zebras, only to be killed by the lancers (who ride bog-standard horses – how boring), Ann is released from her bonds (say what you will about the comic, Riddell could draw one heck of an Ann), and Kaanga throws a patronizing parting shot to the natives. We can only pray they’ll kill him in his sleep one night.

And what did we learn from all this? Absolutely nothing! Thanks boys and girls … more inanity from the Land of Nod tomorrow.

How to Enchant An Item

/ jstater / 7 Comments

Here’s a draft for the whole “creating magic items” bit for Blood & Treasure. Still thinking about this, so feel free to make suggestions and such (unless you think it sucks, in which case keep it to yourself as I have a fragile ego and artistic temperament).

The overall idea is that games are always talking about all the cool ingredients that can be used in making magic items, but this one is going to codify it (in a very vague way, of course). It’s also going to attempt to use the system for making these items as a impetus for adventure – i.e. you need a medusa’s tooth for an item, you have to slay it yourself. The other idea is to make sure that magic items are not being created willy nilly and all the time without using several tons of required gold pieces or XP costs to achieve it.

THE BASICS
The game has two systems for “what level do I have to be?” to make magic items, one based on 3rd edition, where as full spellcasters advance in levels they learn to make different types of magic items, and the other drawn from older versions of the game, that require one to be 9th level to make anything. Treasure Keepers can do as they like.

The overall cost to make an item is equal to have the gp value of the item – which can be divided up by the creator between hiring master craftsmen and alchemists, making the item to be enchanted, etc.

The item to be enchanted must be made by a master craftsman under the watchful eye of the magic item’s creator using the best possible materials

Magic weapons, armor, rings and rods must be forged from meteoric iron, mithral or adamantine or, for rings and rods, precious metals

Leather goods must be made from expensive animal hides

Cloth goods must be made from expensive fabrics (silk, velvet, cloth-of-gold, cloth-of-silver, wool from the exceptionally fine sheep, the hair of virgins, etc.)

Wooden goods (wands, staves, etc.) must be carved from rare and expensive woods

Scrolls must be scribed on vellum prepared by a master or chiseled in an expensive stone (malachite, porphyry) using an adamantine chisel

Potions must be brewed in vats made of precious metals with the assistance of an alchemist

MAGICAL ELEMENTS
All magic items are tied to an “equivalent spell” determined by the Treasure Keeper – i.e. what spell is sorta kinda (or exactly) like the magic item being made here. For each level of that spell, the item requires a “magical element”.

Roll d8 for potions and scrolls, d10 for all other magic items.

MAGICAL ELEMENT (Roll d10)
1-2 Herb (must be harvested from a special place or at a special time)
3-4 Mineral (discovered in a dungeon)
5-8 Monster (slain by the magic-user and his comrades)
9 Place
10 Time

HERBS (may be ground, used to make essential oils, smoked, burned as incense or ingested as a tea)
Angelica: Good and lawful spells, abjurations, summoning
Anise: Abjurations and divinations (esp. clairvoyance)
Basil: Strength, fire, evocations, necromancy, command/domination
Bamboo: Dispel magic
Caraway: Air spells, charm spells, movement
Cinnamon: Holy spells, mind-effects, communication spells, healing spells
Cloves: Negative energy protection, silence, dispel magic, charm person, astral projection, ethereal jaunt and other travel spells (teleport, dimension door)
Coriander: Abjurations
Foxglove: Poison, cause wound spells
Frankincense: ???
Galangal: Luck spells, blessings, remove curse
Garlic: Exorcism, protection from undead, healing, weather spells
Ginger: Fire spells, curses, evocations, spells of travel or movement
Ginseng: Restoration
Hellebore: Exorcism
Henbane: Poison, death spells
Holly: Resistance to electricity, magic circles, protection from evil
Horehound: Plant spells, tree spells, hallow
Lavender: Bless, healing, memory spells, sleep, bull’s strength, bear’s endurance, illusions
Lovage: Eagle’s splendor, charm spells
Mace: Transmutations
Mandrake: Evocations, summoning, visions
Marigold: Illusions
Marjoram: Animal spells, necromancy
Mistletoe: Love, druidic spells
Mugwort: Astral and ethereal travel
Mustard: Enchantments, dispel magic
Myrrh: ???
Myrtle: ???
Nutmeg: Dream, nightmare, divination
Onion: Contact other plane, commune
Oregano: Calm emotions, good hope, abjurations
Parsley: Haste
Peppermint: Animals, energy spells (including protection and resistance), healing, necromancy
Pomegranate: Communication with the dead, necromancy
Poppyseed: Sleep, dream, nightmare, confusion, insanity, binding spells, curses
Rosemary: Fear (including resistance to), exorcism, legend lore, alarm, glyphs and other spells that protect items, fox’s cunning, owl’s wisdom, water spells
Saffron: Sun and light spells, divinations, true seeing, detect invisibility, wind spells
Sage: Healing, longevity, protection from scrying
Savory: Animal spells, fey spells
Star Anise: Lawful spells, mark of justice, detect lie, hallow, aid, bless, prayer
Tarragon: Dragon spells, rage, remove fear
Thyme: Fey spells, divinations, necromancy
Turmeric: War and weapon spells, exorcisms, hold spells, mage armor, shield
Wormwood: Illusion

MINERALS
Agate: Plant spells, physical ability boosts, cure spells, abjurations
Amber: Sun and light spells, detect spells
Amethyst: Mind and emotion spells, clairaudience and other hearing spells, AC-enhancing spells, remove curse, break enchantment
Aventurine: Earth spells, open doors, knock, passwall, remove curse
Bloodstone: Remove fear, enhance physical abilities, heroism, mage’s transformation
Carnelian: Abjurations, fire spells, spells of movement (fly, jump, haste)
Chrysoberyl: Spell turning, reflective spells, locate object, spells of awareness
Copper: Remove fear, neutralize or delay poisons, communication spells
Emerald: Charms and enchantments, exorcism, enhance mental abilities and vision
Fluorite: Chaos spells, cure disease
Garnet: Abjurations, heal
Gold: Spells of purification, positive energy spells
Hematite: Mental and psychic spells, time spells
Jade: Water spells, wisdom spells, healing
Jasper: Abjurations, cure disease
Lapis Lazuli: Psychic spells, remove fear, divinations
Malachite: Plant spells, bear’s endurance, transmutations
Moonstone: Confusion, insanity, wish, neutralize poison, sleep, illusions
Obsidian: Protection from energy, detect evil, true seeing
Onyx: Lawful spells, spells of command and control, abjurations, wall spells
Opal: Emotion spells, memory spells, astral projection, ethereal jaunt, dream, nightmare
Platinum: Anti-transmutation
Quartz: Aid, bless, prayer and other such spells, evocations, cold spells
Rhodochrosite: Fire spells, legend lore, calm emotions
Rose Quartz: Atonement, heal, cure disease, resistance to fire and other energies
Ruby: Command spells, growth spells, haste, resistance to fire and other energies
Sapphire: Wind spells, water spells, planar travel, abjurations, creation spells
Silver: Energy spells, sleep, insanity, magic circles and other protections
Sunstone: Sun, light and fire spells, blessings,strength
Tiger Eye: Animal spells, true seeing, divinations, travel spells
Topaz: Blessings, evocations, mineral detection
Tourmaline: Heal spells, mental spells, plant spells
Turquoise: Earth spells

MONSTER
Requires eye, hair, feather, skin, gland, organ, claw, tooth, etc. of a monster (aberration, dragon, fey, giant, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, outsider, undead) or legendary personage (at least 12th level) associated with the spell or power being woven into the item. Monster must have twice the Hit Dice of the equivalent spell to be used.

PLACE
Ruined temple
Ancient palace
Place associated with birth or death of particular god or demigod
Place associated with magical or historic event
Stone circle sanctified by a 15th or higher level druid
Elemental plane or other plane of existence
Atop highest mountain
Fabled or mythic island
Active volcano
Cloud giant’s castle
Storm giant’s undersea palace
Waters of a magic pool or fountain
Bottom of deepest chasm
Within the pounding surf
Waters of a holy river

TIME
Specific phase of the Moon
Specific solstice or equinox
Specific position of stars
Anniversary of magical or historic event
During a storm, earthquake or other cataclysm (natural)
During a meteor shower

Example: Flaming Longword
The Treasure Keeper rules that fireball is the important spell for a flaming longsword. Fireball is a 3rd level spell, so there will be three rolls on the table above. The TK rolls and gets mineral, monster and time. He decides the “mineral” will be carnelian (3,000 gp worth, powdered), the “monster” a salamander’s blood and the “time” during a meteor shower. The magic user must also provide a sword made of meteoric iron, mithral or adamantine. The magic-user will have to use divinations to discover when and where a meteor shower is to occur, and of course he’ll have to liberate a carnelian from a dungeon and slay a salamander. The services of an alchemist are needed to prepare the carnelian powder. While the flaming sword is forged by a master smith (during the meteor shower and under the open sky, of course), the magic-user mingles in the carnelian powder and salamander blood and casts the fireball spell.

Example: Cape of the Mountebank
The magic-user must provide around 5,000 gp worth of materials for this cape, which must be woven of silk or another expensive material, probably with gold or silver thread embroidered in it. It is associated with the dimension door spell, a 4th level spell of movement and travel. Rolling the dice, the TK decides he needs an herb, two minerals and a place. He decides the place will be the tomb of an infamous illusionist – the enchantment, though not the manufacture of the cloak, must occur there. The “herb” is ginger, which must be brewed into an ale and consumed by the magic-user while creating the item. The “minerals” are sapphire and tiger’s eye, which must be powdered and mixed into a dye for the cloak. The cloak will have silver threads embroidered into it to form symbols of power.