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Post by Otto Harkaman on Oct 31, 2013 13:24:59 GMT -6
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Oct 30, 2013 8:43:04 GMT -6
I remember years ago a Chainmail battle was posted on Dragonsfoot. The post was by Paul J. Stormberg who had taken a lot of the pictures at the event and along with these posted a running commentary. They had gotten Gary to play and it was fun reading and looking at the pictures. BATTLE REPORT: The Battle for the Moathouse Dragonsfoot url to thread www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=18764&hilit=chainmail+moat+houseSadly the picture links are broken, I am trying to see if I can find them elsewhere.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Oct 5, 2013 5:10:46 GMT -6
I think you "needed" Chainmail to play 0D&D "right." There was, and is, no correct way to play. That's the beauty of the way those rules were written. You were expected to mold it to your ideas. Then, as now ... If you're having fun, you're doing it right. Well obviously most of us did that but I guess now that I am old and looking back on the whole thing I want to know what it was that I was suppose to have been doing. Yes, I think there are parts of the game you can mold or fudge but the combat turn sequence and system of initiative is an important structure of play. To not have that at all described in Men & Magic but its implied usage is interesting. I am not trying to be a game lawyer more a game archaeologist
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Oct 2, 2013 6:12:41 GMT -6
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Oct 1, 2013 10:46:44 GMT -6
I'll have to check it out Owlords! Sorry just noticed your posting
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Oct 1, 2013 10:31:28 GMT -6
Thanks, this is a great thread! Great breakdown of FFC! You've given me a better understanding of the JG product plus enhanced my sense of D&D history.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Sept 30, 2013 19:54:08 GMT -6
The group who initiated me to D&D had Chainmail and used initiative and the turn sequence from it. I remember the whole thing vaguely because I believe I was twelve at the time. They were all much older than me, most in their later teens or early twenties.
I do see now that it was crucial to have Chainmail before the Holmes book came out, which is really where I began to understand the rules on my own. Also the Strategic Review vol 1 #2 would have helped.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Sept 30, 2013 18:33:04 GMT -6
Interesting reading Gary Gygax in the book "Role Playing Mastery" he states that it was an inconsequential portion of Chainmail that started dungeons.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Sept 30, 2013 16:23:06 GMT -6
I never noticed until now that there is no mention that I have found so far in Men & Magic or Greyhawk on the Turn sequence. Its in Chainmail, about rolling initiative etc. Am I missing it somewhere? No. That's why it's in the FAQ from the early Strategic Review. This was in Strategic Review Vol 1 #2, QUESTIONS MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED ABOUT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS RULES? The description of Initiative is still pretty brief in this article and I don't see anything about the Turn Sequence. There is a combat example but I haven't gone through it yet.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Sept 10, 2013 22:06:57 GMT -6
Instead of "recommended," CHAINMAIL should be listed under "DEAR GOD THIS GAME WILL MAKE NO ****ING SENSE AT ALL WITHOUT THIS!" As evidenced by the number of people who had never played Chainmail before, got a copy of D&D, and wrote to TSR for help in understanding how to play. It's not that you need to reference the rules of Chainmail to play, it's that you need to understand how Chainmail is played and what its terminology means in order to understand those same elements in D&D.I never noticed until now that there is no mention that I have found so far in Men & Magic or Greyhawk on the Turn sequence. Its in Chainmail, about rolling initiative etc. Am I missing it somewhere?
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 15, 2013 10:00:35 GMT -6
Well put Finarvyn. I took up the argument more heartily than I wanted or meant to. There is good and bad, it definitely stirred my imagination at the time.
Cheers
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 8, 2013 6:14:32 GMT -6
Couldn't agree more!
Didn't take you at all that way. Unless that was your intention?
We should move this to a new thread and people should show actually play examples instead of jingoism.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 7, 2013 15:10:53 GMT -6
I dusted off my GM screen and black books the other day just to look them over again. A great game, even if I haven't played it in years.... Was it really as good as we thought it was? I wonder now. I had bought the black book box set in '78 I think, which would have made me 14 at the time. I remember reading, pondering and gloating over the books for endless hours but I never really understood anything beside the character generator. Oh yes I rolled up endless characters just dreaming of using them. I think I remember a few attempts of my friends and I to run combat, I don't know what we did now. Have you ever run a successful combat sequence? I couldn't afford snapshot at the time. Also, I made a very sincere attempt at one time to figure out the space combat in book 2. They never made any sense but I dreamed of my own scout ship and made sure I rolled up a scout character who received one when he left the service. Also I never saw Mayday available at that time in our gaming store nor could I have afforded it. I always read that it replicated traveller space combat on a hex grid. A year or so ago I ended up focusing on the Mayday rules that I bought as a pdf from Paizo and using Mycenae's vassal module. I realize after a few attempts that it was impossible, many rules when you really dug into them were very vague. Missiles are a good example, really read them and see if they make sense. With that said its fun to look at these creative third party products that were made to fill in the gap for adventures that GDW, besides a couple adventures, never seemed to fulfil.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 6, 2013 17:00:26 GMT -6
Awesome! Thanks for the heads up!
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 6, 2013 16:53:37 GMT -6
His father? Who's drawings seem heavily influenced by early maps? I want to say medieval but I think they are more from the 15th century. His hills or mountains sometimes remind me of medieval maps of Jerusalem. I am just guessing.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 6, 2013 9:35:33 GMT -6
I couldn't agree more Finarvyn
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 5, 2013 16:00:28 GMT -6
Yes I would agree there is no reason to change stats. To me intelligence would be intuitiveness and ability to figuring something out, Wisdom would be education and knowledge. I've been looking over some old rpgs Space Patrol ('77) and Heritage Star Trek ('78) they use six stats. Same designer but stats listed in different order. A lot of these have what you mentioned a stat for Luck. I'm not sold on that stat at the moment. I am not sure about everyone having PSI stat either Space PatrolStr Dex Luck Con Cha Mentality Star TrekStr Dex Luck Mentality Cha Con Interesting FASA Star Trek 1st edStr Endurance Int Dex Char Luck *PSI ability I've noticed some old sci-fi rpgs replace Wisdom with Will power. I'm forgetting my basics, isn't Wisdom used to modify against Charm spells? So there would be an example of it used as will power.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 5, 2013 5:43:48 GMT -6
Wow a year has about gone by. I can now see all my misspellings clearly in earlier posts. Sorry about broken picture links I changed hosting services. I'll try to go edit them out. Well I've been collecting a lot of old Sci-Fi style rpgs in the interim. I think we left off trying to figure out experience and level advancement since most Sci-Fi rpgs don't offer this. I have found that the TSR Buck Rogers XXVc has levels. Reading somewhere it was stated that this game is based on AD&D 2e, when I get some time I'll look more closely.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 4, 2013 21:55:48 GMT -6
It is incredible that you drew it, I was thinking also that you had printed it out on the judges guild hex sheet. If I may suggest you should get it photographed or scanned professionally for safe keeping. I am sure there must be a architectual and blue printing company near you.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 4, 2013 16:16:39 GMT -6
I love it! Looks great without names! Gives a sense of wonder and makes you want to explore Rivendell shouldn't be known, its a hidden secret haven
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jun 29, 2013 9:18:56 GMT -6
I can do that Finarvyn. My map is stitched together from a scanned pdf just to warn you.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jun 29, 2013 6:40:22 GMT -6
Got a hold of several of the old I.C.E Tolkien games as pdfs. Been building a cyberboard gamebox of the Battle of Five Armies.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Apr 8, 2013 13:04:14 GMT -6
Very interesting! I wonder why they felt the need to change some of the story?
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Mar 17, 2013 8:38:28 GMT -6
Very nice!
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Mar 7, 2013 11:20:07 GMT -6
I would allow priests/clerics of Set to wield poisoned daggers.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Feb 16, 2013 12:18:40 GMT -6
Awesome! thanks for posting. I never knew what the evil one looked like till now.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Feb 15, 2013 16:03:25 GMT -6
Wow thanks for posting this, downloading and look forward to listening
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Feb 14, 2013 13:33:36 GMT -6
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Feb 14, 2013 7:26:29 GMT -6
Because of the Crusading thread, I feel like trying SPI's Crusades by Richard H. Berg. A game I have always wanted to play. There is a really nice ADC2 module by Nick Bell for playing this in Aide de Camp
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Feb 14, 2013 5:33:10 GMT -6
Man, this is a treasure trove of info! Thanks for drawing it to my attention. The "Story of Nations" series was very popular in its day, late 19th century. An author I enjoy reading did several of them, Charles Oman. Here is one of his books that you might also find interesting. "A history of the war, the middle ages from the fourth to the fourteenth century" (1898)archive.org/details/historyartofwar00omanuoft
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