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Post by vladtolenkov on Dec 29, 2013 22:04:10 GMT -6
Right. There was no such thing as an RPG.
I was just interested in looking at things in OD&D through the lens of it as this weird expansion/replacement of Chainmail.
It was a viewpoint I hadn't fully explored in thinking through its implications and trying to look at the text without much in the way of assumptions.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Dec 29, 2013 16:18:30 GMT -6
One thing that I'd like to point out is that it seems to me that for Tolkien landscape was especially important. Aragorn has them make camp at Weathertop for a reason. He knows that the former Numenorean stronghold is still a spirtual stronghold in a sense. He knows the Nine will be weakened by the very place. This is especially true of the scene at the Ford as well. Water is the province of the Valar Ulmo, and Sauron's power is weakened again by the location. Moreover, the Ford is also protected through Elond's magic somehow as well.
In both cases the Nine overcome their weakness/fear because they are SO CLOSE to attaining the enemy's goal. And yes they fail, but the odds are stacked against them operating in lands like the Shire. Meeting them in Minas Morgul would be a whole different story.
That's my take anyway.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Dec 29, 2013 16:03:18 GMT -6
Any other bits folks notice about monsters in a wargame/Chainmail context please feel free to post those observations here.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Dec 29, 2013 16:00:20 GMT -6
I've recently been rereading OD&D and trying to look at it in the context of it as a Fantastic Medieval Wargame rather than as an RPG. Reading it in this light makes many of the description of monsters in the Monsters & Treasure book particularly interesting.
Ghouls, Wraiths, and Specters are particularly interesting as they gain control of any "men" that they kill. For some reason I'd always thought of this in RPG terms rather than in the context of D&D as wargame. In that light, these sorts of undead are seriously bad news (not that they weren't before)!
This might be old news to folks around here, but I'd never reoriented my assumption so heavily than this recent re-read.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Dec 18, 2013 11:46:14 GMT -6
Long Beach, CA.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Dec 5, 2013 12:02:34 GMT -6
I habitually haunt used bookstores, and so a while back I started looking for Norton's Witchworld books. I have now picked up six of the ace editions from the late 1970s or early 80s. I haven't stated reading them yet but I've got: Witchworld,Web of the Witchworld, Three Against the Witch World, Warlock of the Witchworld, Sorceress of the Witch World, and Zarthor's Bane. The only one I'd still like to get is Year of the Unicorn (which has been harder to locate).
I'm curious to dive into these.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Sept 5, 2013 10:15:44 GMT -6
1st and 2nd edition seem harder to locate. This was just sitting on the shelf in a used bookstore I was in the other day. Cost: $7.50!
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Post by vladtolenkov on Sept 4, 2013 8:33:19 GMT -6
Also just picked up a copy of Champions 3rd edition--which is pretty much complete in 130 or so pages. I'd like to give that a go sometime.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Sept 4, 2013 8:29:24 GMT -6
Too many to name. And the list is changing all the time. But here's my (current) top five:
Runequest (2nd edition)
Talislanta
Empire of the Petal Throne
James Bond 007
Metamorphosis Alpha
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Post by vladtolenkov on May 2, 2013 10:28:18 GMT -6
My Frankengame has now drawn in inspiration from Warhammer Fantasy and Ravenloft.
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Post by vladtolenkov on May 1, 2013 15:46:31 GMT -6
The second big nominally-AD&D (1981-82ish) campaign was even worse, using AD&D as the core mechanic, the magic system was a simplified version of Chivalry & Sorcery, Hit Locations from RQ, Critical Hits and fumbles from RQ and Ardiun and an article from the Dragon, and weapon tables from a now-tattered first edition of Palladium's Weapons and Armor. The setting was on a planet in a multiple star system vaguely inspired by Poul Anderson's novel Fire Time, with a mythology and culture that was classical India with the serial numbers filed off with a bit of Tékumel thrown in for seasoning. These required a lot of setting-specific house rules, including a system for reincarnation based vaguely on first edition Bushido. Combat had the players throwing three d20s to roll a hit - one for whether or not they hit, one for the location, and the third to determine whether they hit or fumbled. ...Yeah, it had gotten a bit out of hand. Now that's a Frankengame!! Awesome.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 30, 2013 8:21:32 GMT -6
Griffin Mountain is amazing.
You should start a thread in the Runequest section when you get a few sessions under your belt.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 29, 2013 13:14:22 GMT -6
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 25, 2013 20:11:35 GMT -6
I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but the above pretty much describes how I'm playing the game. That's great. No Arduin though?
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 25, 2013 10:16:47 GMT -6
Interestingly I've gone the opposite way; I now run LBB straight up, plus character classes and spells from the supplements. But no variable weapon damage, no bonuses for stats other than in the original LBB, etc. I totally dig that too. When I first got on these forums I was a LBBs only guy for awhile. I think that running OD&D straight up is something that everybody interested in old school rpgs should try at least once. My natural tendency is to start to tinker--but I really only want to do this once I've got a handle on the rules as written.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 25, 2013 8:38:31 GMT -6
Awesome. I stole some of the reward economy from Burning Wheel for the frankengame that I mentioned above--destiny and fate points as ways to temporarily increase your chances of success in using a skill. Skill increases happen through useage as in Runequest ( and Burning Wheel).
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 24, 2013 21:46:20 GMT -6
(Forgive the ramble, but I do get around to my point eventually):
Okay. . .folks at this board are really comfortable with house ruling D&D. We sometimes even get into the debate of where do my houserules become a new game. I don't want to get into that issue, but I do love tinkering with game systems, and I love games that allow you to do this. I also love lots of other fantasy roleplaying games besided OD&D (the wellspring from which all awesomeness flows) like AD&D, Runequest (Especially 2nd ed.), Stormbringer, Rolemaster, Talislanta, Ars Magica, Palladium Fantasy (1st. ed only), The Fantasy Trip, Chivalry & Sorcery and many others.
You can see where my tastes run these days--which is funny because ten years ago I would have told you that games with too many rules were not to my taste. I was using Fudge and running all sorts of very rules lite games. However, thanks to the OSR and thinking about games in all sorts of new ways I've decided to embrace my inner rules tinker/designer, and I've been playing around with my own mish mash ruleset that takes from D&D and all of the rules heavy Fantasy sim games that I love.
So tell us here about the "house rules" and Frankenstein mishmash games that grew until they almost became something else.
My mish-mash ruleset borrows liberally from many of the games listed above. For example, it uses much of the combat system from Stormbringer/Runequest, incorporates the blows system from C&S, borrows a few rules from AD&D, draws some of its approach to character generation from both Rolemaster and Palladium, and takes its magic system inspirations from Talislanta.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 24, 2013 17:09:06 GMT -6
I'm with you on that.
Being that Malekith is the villain maybe we'll get to see Surtur (if not in this film maybe in the next Thor movie).
We've seen the Frost Giants--who doesn't want to see the Fire Giants?
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 24, 2013 13:59:38 GMT -6
Sadly, the rights to Galactus are still tied up with the FF at Fox.
When they recently lost the rights to Daredevil--I read somewhere that Marvel's counteroffer to let then keep Daredevil was for Fox to give them the rights back for Silver Surfer and Galactus.
Fox didn't take the bait.
Too bad.
Marvel hopefully wouldn't have made 'ole G a stupid giant cloud. . .
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 10, 2013 16:04:02 GMT -6
Awesome!!
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Post by vladtolenkov on Apr 4, 2013 22:02:58 GMT -6
That's a great write up. Thanks for sharing!
So would I be able to jump into Knights & Magick with a big pile of plastic D&D minis?
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Post by vladtolenkov on Mar 20, 2013 9:29:55 GMT -6
I'm probably going to pick up the pdf as well.
I guess the guys at the Gaming Game checked around with all of the folks who bought Heritage's IP/miniature stuff and nobody had purchased Knights and Magick because Heritage didn't consider the rules to be of any value--thus they weren't part of the selling off of their stuff. None of the folks who bought Heritage's IP had any objection to these guys republishing the game. So the only person who could object is Heritage and they haven't existed as an entity for nearly thirty years. So. . .good news for us!!
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Post by vladtolenkov on Mar 19, 2013 14:10:44 GMT -6
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Post by vladtolenkov on Mar 9, 2013 17:27:13 GMT -6
Just to be clear this is merely my reading of the LBBs right now. I may change my mind next week.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Mar 9, 2013 17:23:05 GMT -6
Yeah, after thinking about the brown books for quite a while--I feel like this is the implied system that the books present. Much more open than later editions although it places the burden on the referee to make fair and consistent rulings.
Anybody else use something like this system?
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Post by vladtolenkov on Mar 8, 2013 12:33:59 GMT -6
Hey folks, I just posted this on my blog but I wondered what your thoughts were:
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Post by vladtolenkov on Feb 27, 2013 16:36:41 GMT -6
Except that ASL Starter kits 1 ans 2 are out of print!
Starter kit 3 is still available and although it does contain all the rules, maps, and counters you need there are only a few infantry scenarios included.
And I didn't want to get into using tanks and artillery too soon.
ATS sounds interesting--maybe I'll have to take another look at that.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Feb 27, 2013 13:15:21 GMT -6
I've looked at Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear and the ASL starter kits. Those seem about my speed. However, I am tempted to eventually just pick up plain old SL and give that go sometime.
ATS is one I read about as well that seems like its a bit heavier than Conflict of Heroes but still not as complex as ASL.
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Post by vladtolenkov on Feb 27, 2013 11:44:57 GMT -6
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Post by vladtolenkov on Feb 27, 2013 11:42:56 GMT -6
Hey all! I suffered an extreme bout of Avalon Hill wargaming nostalgia a few months back (I have since recovered and am have returned to thinking about OD&D/AD&D).
Specifically I was thinking about Squad Leader--a game which I always wanted to get a hold of but never did as I was too intimidated to actually buy it. During my summer wargame internet excursion I learned quite a bit about SL and its strapping offspring ASL.
So. . .you guys a are gamers. How many of you played Squad Leader back in the day? Do you still play? Any of you move on to the "lifestyle game" ASL?
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