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Post by Zenopus on Feb 23, 2024 10:34:13 GMT -6
*bump* Just under a month until Gary Con 2024! Gold badge game registration was last week, and Silver registration is tomorrow. I'll be there, and as planned am running two games, my previously run Forgotten Smugglers' Cave, and a brand new one for the 50th anniversary: Party of Balrogs, a LBB game where the PCs are all Balrogs (!).
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 17, 2024 11:15:24 GMT -6
The 1973 D&D Draft (aka "Guidon D&D") specifically states this rule on page 15:
(The numbers were lower at this point: MU 200,000; F 150,000; Cleric 50,000)
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 15, 2024 12:03:29 GMT -6
IIRC, "Castle Ruins" was an early title for what became the "Upper Works".
From their site:
I assume that the "The Dungeons" portion will include the material from the Upper Works, but it sounds like it may be a hardcover book now?
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 12, 2024 23:32:05 GMT -6
Dungeoneer's Survival Guide aka DSG
The description of the Underdark setting was the best part of it! There was sort of a stealth Underdark source book spread between the Monster Manual II (monsters), Unearthed Arcana (PC races) and campaign setting (DSG).
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 28, 2024 12:33:55 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Dec 8, 2023 22:10:25 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 11, 2023 12:16:17 GMT -6
The "something very similar" would have to omit the distinction between surprised and completely surprised, and would have to use a six-sided die ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) While I have no idea whether Gary used something from the Dracolisk chart in the 1970s, the concept of "surprise" (roll of 1 for surprise) versus "complete surprise" (roll of 2 for surprise) does show up in Eldritch Wizardry in April 1976. The term "complete surprise" is also mentioned in the entry for the catoblepas in the Strategic Review #7 in the same month, and then is repeated in the Monster Manual entry in 1977 but with an explanation ("2 on a 6-sided die"). "Complete surprise" barely appears in AD&D (in the Phantasmal Killer spell in the PHB, and in the Crossbow of Speed in the DMG) and isn't explained there, so it is interesting it appears in the MMII, and could conceivably be a holdover from the OD&D era. In addition to the Dracolisk, the term also appears in the MMII in the entry for the Boalisk ("Complete surprise (1-2 on 1d6) indicates someone has met the gaze and gets no saving throw").
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 29, 2023 18:03:35 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 29, 2023 12:15:29 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 28, 2023 10:18:49 GMT -6
Another possibility for the answerer is Arneson, who was at TSR until November 1976, per Game Wizards. Any thoughts increment or stormberg?
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 28, 2023 7:01:17 GMT -6
Wow! Thanks for sharing. There have been many reports that TSR/Gygax was inundated with requests for rules clarifications in the early years, so it's amazing to see an actual example of one! A few notes: ---The letter writer is named Wayne Patton. There is an author of the same name in Judges Guild Journal #3 (Installment N), Aug/Sep 77, who contributes a single new monster: Gremlins. Notably, the OD&D set up for auction also includes some Judges Guild tables. The author's hometown, Iowa City, is about 3 hours driving southwest of Lake Geneva, and 4 hours northwest of Decatur, IL, where JG was located, so they were part of the mid-west gaming milieu. ---The letter is dated 9/9/1976. This is after all of the supplements for D&D were released, with the last two (GD&H and S&S) having been released in July, per the Acaeum. The writer mentions thieves & gelatinous cubes, which both appeared in the Greyhawk supplement. ---I wonder if we could figure out who answered the letter based on the handwriting? The mix of upper and lower case does remind me of some of Gygax's writing that I've seen. ---As to the clarifications themselves, they are a mixed bag, but interesting. Question 1: The writer seems to be asking about the ability of characters to read & write, but the answerer seemingly misunderstands and just replies with a reference to the rules for thieves being able to read languages & magic at certain levels. Question 2: The writer is asking for alternate rules for damage by fire, including for susceptible creatures (referencing mummies and gelatinous cubes). The answerer focuses only the susceptible creatures, providing a system for those to take extra damage (+1 per die; sort of the opposite effect of Resist Fire). Question 3: This is a good example of a DM back-in-the-day wondering about the oft-questioned armor/weapon restrictions in Men & Magic. The answerer gives a quick and emphatic clarification that the restrictions for magic armor/weapons are intended to apply to the normal versions as well. Question 4: The answerer provides a useful clarification that a dwarf can detect traps while walking along, as long as they are not otherwise engaged.
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 15, 2023 5:10:27 GMT -6
Holmes also doesn't say that damage equals current HP. The example it gives is that a dragon with 20 HP does 20 points of breath weapon damage, or 10 if the save is made. There's nothing saying to reduce this if the dragon is wounded.
I think this idea was introduced in B/X Basic.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 29, 2023 6:57:35 GMT -6
The Yggsburgh PDF is now up for sale by itself on the Troll Lord Games page, for $24.95: Yggsburgh PDF at TLG(Remember if you buy the hardcopy, it comes with the PDF as well) It's supposed to be up on DrivethruRPG soon as well, but I don't see it there yet.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 28, 2023 16:28:44 GMT -6
I thought this was going to be about the $26,000 copy that just sold on Ebay.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 25, 2023 9:11:50 GMT -6
Per TLG on FB, a PDF-only option is coming shortly to their website and DrivethruRPG. No price indicated yet.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 24, 2023 14:45:04 GMT -6
I just checked and my hardcopy published in 2005 has an MSRP of $39.95 on the barcode on the back. But there's also a $20 price tag on it. And I actually bought it from an online shop for less than that in 2009. It was basically considered abandonware for years once the TLG lost the license to continue publishing the Zagyg series.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 24, 2023 14:18:40 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 24, 2023 14:01:45 GMT -6
Email states price is $39.95. Link in email to product indicates $65.00 ? Yeah, that puzzles me too. Over in the parallel DF thread, foster1941 mentioned that the $39.95 is the original MSRP. It looks to me that in the email they simply cut-and-pasted some of their old ad copy without proofing it. Which is pretty on-point for them. ![8-)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/cool.png)
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 23, 2023 16:52:18 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 19, 2023 9:16:06 GMT -6
... Here's a second suggested strategy: - Cast fly- Cast invisibility- Cast non-attacking spells in support of an allied army ( control weather, move earth, hallucinatory terrain, conjure elemental, etc.) In this case, the wizard would getting a lot of value and seemingly not even be detectable by a conventional army. (There are probably other combos, but these two strike me as the most obvious and troubling.) ... A non-preferred answer would be "the other army needs its own wizard" (or the like), because it effectively capitulates on the issue that conventional armies would be helpless against a standard D&D wizard. Is there any better near-rules-based response? Now, Vol-3 has a ground-to-air missile fire rule (p. 27) where a catapult can fire a load of stones at an aerial target in a "shotgun effect", so perhaps that provides a conventional counter for armies of normal man (and you better have one or more of those most of the time). But it still seems to fail against the second strategy with the invisible wizard. Are there other options? Another possible option: Superheroes in Chainmail and OD&D (at least per the Pixie entry in Vol 2) can see invisible targets, as you yourself recently wrote about. It seems that a Superhero with the ability to fly (using a mount or magic item) could target a flying invisible wizard. And even if there's no flight available, the Superhero could attach to a unit and direct missile fire at the wizard from the ground. Per the Fantasy Reference Table, Wraiths, Dragons and Rocs also have the same ability "to detect hidden invisible enemies", and can each fly. This ability is not clearly defined, however, as only the entry for Dragons mentions the ability to see invisible (and only up to 15"), and the entry for Roc indicates that they can see hidden enemies up to 48" but *not* invisible ones. This brings to question whether the ability of Superheroes is also range-limited. In OD&D, Vol 2, some intelligent swords also have the ability to See Invisible Objects (the 2nd level MU spell "Detect Invisible (Objects)" says that this includes invisible creatures). A sword with Detect Magic might work as well, if interpreted to encompass creatures with a spell cast upon them. Or possibly Detect Evil. Intelligent Swords don't have any indicated range limitation, although one might limit them to an equivalent magic-user spell.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 17, 2023 18:27:10 GMT -6
With respect to the first scenario (flying wizard/wand of fire balls), it gives one side a high-powered magic item but then the other side nothing of equivalent strength. It seems you could construct a similar unbalanced scenario by giving only one side a pack of hippogriffs able to drop bombs (using the bombing rules in Vol 3).
I also note that the Vol 3 section on Ground-to-Air attacks also mentions a "tension-type" of light catapult that can fire darts doing 2d6 damage into the air, including straight up, to "the maximum range of such catapults", which in Chainmail is 30" for light catapults, so longer than the range for fireball. I think if such aerial attacks were common, these types of catapults would also be common.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 14, 2023 16:23:32 GMT -6
Question: have they severed the early D&D, Chainmail and other out of print games out of the regular con? What’s up with Legends and Founders con scheduled for the weekend before the regular Gary Con? Apparently we got to buy an extra badge and extra room & board. That kind of sucks No, F&L is a separate one-off con this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D&D. You can still run any type of game at the regular Gary Con as usual.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 12, 2023 20:08:00 GMT -6
I've got my badge and am planning on running two game sessions. Probably the Forgotten Smugglers' Cave again and something purely LBB OD&D for the 50th anniversary.
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Post by Zenopus on Jul 23, 2023 12:28:07 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Jul 1, 2023 14:38:00 GMT -6
Desparil: In case you haven't seen it, upthread ( here) there's an example of Chainmail combat written by Gygax in 1975 where the post-melee result is 14 (i.e., "melee continues" on the "Post Melee Morale" table), but Gygax states that the melee continues in the next turn rather than being immediately resolved by further rounds.
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Post by Zenopus on Jun 28, 2023 19:51:37 GMT -6
I voted "Yes".
I typically run theatre-of-the-mind combat and allow casting during melee unless the caster is directly engaged in melee (i.e., someone swinging at them) or has been hit (by melee, missile or spell) earlier in the round. I use Dex-based initiative without declarations, so on a caster's turn they can choose to cast if they haven't been hit by something and don't have anyone swinging at them.
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Post by Zenopus on May 2, 2023 22:14:34 GMT -6
Gamism Narrativism Simulationism
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Post by Zenopus on Apr 30, 2023 13:41:52 GMT -6
All characters have one ability score called "Ability Score" That's close to the Awesomesauce RPG, where you have exactly 1 stat named Awesomesauce: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/107162/Awesomesauce-The-Roleplaying-Game-Troll-Hammer-EditionIt's your generic skill and you can roll as many dice as you have in Awesomesauce, as long as you roll above the enemy's result in combat, you retain your score in Awesomesauce, if you lose, you lose the dice you used. I was thinking of TWERPS by Jeff and 'Manda Dee, which also did that back in the '80s with a single stat: Strength. But I did have a sense there were more recent RPGs that also took that approach.
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Post by Zenopus on Apr 30, 2023 10:39:08 GMT -6
All characters have one ability score called "Ability Score"
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Post by Zenopus on Apr 27, 2023 19:18:50 GMT -6
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