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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 9, 2012 16:18:35 GMT -6
Are you then using the vassal mod for a pbem d&d game? I'm messing around with such. I've hacked and edited some of Mycenae's modules for GDW's Mayday. He has also made some for metagaming's Melee/Wizards. I was going to tweak this module for OD&D or I am. Nothing official, totally for personal satisfaction. I was wondering if you might be interesting in a good space pirate boarding "Snapshot" firefight sometime. Mycenae has a module posted on the vassal website, also an Azhanti High Lightning one. No hurry, if you are interested in such you could help me beta test a Holms/ODD one. I was amazed how easy it was to connect though the vassal server. However you realize how much non verbal facial information goes on that you don't get playing online.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 8, 2012 12:25:24 GMT -6
I have the first eight books, from back when Ace re-released them in the early 1980's. I read the first one and liked it, but don't recall why I never read the rest. My wife read the whole set and really liked them. You might be in for a real treat then. I don't think they really need be read in any order. You might ask your wife for a suggestion. My favorite was Warlock of the Witch World. Lots of sorcery, swords and monsters. The first book The Witch World is much more in the Science Fiction genre as the series progresses they become more sword and fantasy. Andre Norton wrote some great pure Science Fiction, really how she first became known I believe. Or have you read Quag Keep?
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 8, 2012 12:17:34 GMT -6
I think the 5' would be the best. I can imagine two figures able to fight sword and shield abreast better in a 10' corridor than three. I could see three with pole arms and shields abreast, or perhaps all armed with short sword and shield fighting roman style. I am tweaking a Melee vassal module into a D&D one, I don't know if you are familiar with vassal but its much easier to control and measure movement on a grid than having to create a virtual measuring stick or ruler.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 8, 2012 11:18:46 GMT -6
Well it just dawned on me that I was thinking too much on the lines of Melee and should toss the mega-square idea and just go to a smaller grid scale for combat.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 8, 2012 9:09:22 GMT -6
Any other Andre Norton fans? I have been having fun listening to several audio books of her Witch World series. I think the land of Escore is a perfect place to mix Holmes (or OD&D) & Metamorphosis Alpha. There seems a mix of spells and Mental powers that these two together would fit perfectly. Not to mention mutants of technology and sorcery. I always thought The Warlock of the Witch World had the most awesome back cover. I always dreamed about having that magic sword in adventures ;D
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 8, 2012 7:45:37 GMT -6
I hadn't noticed that there was a change in later versions from 10' to 5' in dungeon scales, thanks for pointing that out. I had the assumption that you could put everyone on a grid in their separate box but that doesn't really work does it. I guess you have to measure everyone's individual movement separate from the grid once combat starts? I was thinking that you could divide a 10' square into ninth's. Making the dungeon square into a mega-square much like Melee uses. But then I realized that you would start to have all kinds of strange movement problems and that the square almost because a barrier in itself Now that I think that over even the SSI Gold box games does this, going from a movement grid to a ungrided battlefield when you enter a room for combat.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 7, 2012 15:17:30 GMT -6
OD&D states you can have 3 man-sized creatures fighting side-by-side in a ten foot corridor (Volume III: UW&WA p. 12 underlined text at the top of the page). Your idea may have come from the zone of control idea often used in wargames, including Chainmail (p, 16 "All types of troops are considered to control the space 1 " on either side of themselves to stop infiltration." Thanks Cameron, much appreciated! I just had an epiphany, I was getting my assumptions from "Snapshot" GDW's game based on Traveller's combat.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 7, 2012 14:14:57 GMT -6
While AD&D didn't have grid rules it had miniature rules basically the 1" = 10 feet indoor 1" = 10 yards outdoor convention. Yes I vaguely remember that now, and I guess somewhere I started to assume one square is equal to 10 feet. I think I was also assuming from somewhere that one character takes up one square or 10 feet when fighting. Where is that from?
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 7, 2012 9:08:21 GMT -6
Thanks for the info owlorbs, I'll check it out. Interesting the idea of cinematic combat vs a tactical battle layout. I am interesting in creating tactical battle on a grid using paper minaitures but I can see where in just roleplaying it is easier to perform cinematic combat. I think this is what we mainly did when I was young. I remember using extra 6-sided dice to represent our characters marching order. Funny now that I have a look again at the DMG with these hex or square diagrams that I had an anathema against using hexes for D&D combat. I thought dungeons had to be on square grids!
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 7, 2012 8:25:49 GMT -6
Thanks exedore!
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 7, 2012 6:55:24 GMT -6
I am going through the old Holmes rules now and maybe its in his dungeon section but I was wondering where do the rules (Holmes or OD&D) clarify movement and combat on the square grid layout used for most floor plans?
I am realizing now that most of my assumption about the rules are coming from playing the SSI AD&D Gold box games which implements D&D combat on a square grid.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 4, 2012 17:51:17 GMT -6
I wonder if Gary got the idea for the various Bigby spells from the second story "The Mathematics of Magic"
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 4, 2012 9:45:59 GMT -6
Been getting into the second story and now that I have some idea of the Faerie Queene I am finding it more enjoyable. Interesting how de Camp and Pratt interweave their literary wit. I remember reading an interview somewhere about how they wrote these stories together.
Its lighthearted and definitely doesn't take itself seriously. I find the prose fun to read. I would have liked to ask Gary some questions. Like did you get the idea of encounters from this story? The two lead protagonists get into some discussion about the nature of the world they are travelling in. They observe that they are constantly going from one encounter to another but that this was the nature of Spenser's poem.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 3, 2012 10:18:37 GMT -6
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Aug 1, 2012 16:23:41 GMT -6
I guess for weird occult scariness,
As mentioned but one of those late night movies I happen to turn on as a teenager not knowing what it was that I was getting into,"The Raven" with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff as dueling sorcerers. Funny that a very young Jack Nicholson was also in this movie.
I didn't know at the time Vincent Price's many other movies, as mentioned "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Witchhunter General" etc. Thanks goodness, saved me some nightmares!
Another scary occult Elizabethan horror movie that I don't recommend is "Blood on Satan's Claw." someone has been perverse enough to post the whole film on youtube if you have to view. It would have aired on TV in the early 70s.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 30, 2012 11:55:04 GMT -6
I assume this is just to raise argument.
Does role-playing need any rules? seriously
OD&D has a nice combat system for melee combat and with some house rules it could cover many different genres. It also has a nice rewards system for surviving melee and finding treasure. Too bad Gary didn't make up levels for space rangers & space pirates is all I can see.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 27, 2012 9:36:34 GMT -6
I was just watching an interesting movie "Capitaine Alatriste" it has a great battle scene of Rocoi at the end. Of course someone has posted it on Youtube. youtu.be/ZrVbr4vIGgg
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 27, 2012 6:34:58 GMT -6
Yes I probably enjoyed them more as a teenager but they were also a fresh discovery. I probably liked Elric the same way many of the kids who like vampires nowadays. Few books I reread but I have done so with several of the Elric books. I think I have audio of several of the books. I might have to dig those up and have fun listening to the stories.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 24, 2012 13:21:59 GMT -6
Found a BBC radio dramatization of Spenser's The Faerie Queene. I always wanted to read it after reading the second Enchanter story. I didn't know how bawdry it was going to be! ha ha
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Ivanhoe
Jul 20, 2012 6:43:57 GMT -6
Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 20, 2012 6:43:57 GMT -6
I think I read the Black Arrow but no recollection. One of those books I would like to read again but probably no time. I was reading on Wiki that it takes place during The War of the Roses. I did read "Men of Iron" when I was young, I hadn't realized at the time that it also took place during the War of the Roses.
Just watched a good part of "Knights of the Round Table" another Robert Taylor movie made after the success of Ivanhoe. Supposedly these movies were done at a MGM studio in England but I swear the landscapes look like California.
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Ivanhoe
Jul 19, 2012 16:58:14 GMT -6
Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 19, 2012 16:58:14 GMT -6
Thanks for letting me know about the '80s made for TV version. I found clips of it on Youtube. Also came across Roger Moore playing Ivanhoe for a 50s British TV series.
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Ivanhoe
Jul 19, 2012 15:35:46 GMT -6
Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 19, 2012 15:35:46 GMT -6
Just got finished watching Robert Taylor in "Ivanhoe." Elizabeth Taylor also stars in the movie. I have an audio book of Ivanhoe unabridged by Sir Walter Scott that I am going to listen to next. It is fun to listen to his prose.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jul 19, 2012 15:30:08 GMT -6
I enjoyed it way back in the seventies, I still have a copy on my bookshelf.
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