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Post by Zenopus on Oct 19, 2016 12:31:15 GMT -6
Just because a fighter has improved his ability to score a damaging hit does not mean he has surpassed the ability of a monster of a certain HD to also score a hit. In other words, Monster HD is not equivalent to Fighter level.
If you need justification, consider that monsters may fight differently from humans, and have natural attack forms that are more lethal than those of humans. Remember that in OD&D, most monsters get a single attack for 1d6 damage. But a 2 HD gnoll may be physically stronger than any normal human plus have the ability to scratch with claws and bite with teeth in addition to attacking with a weapon, all giving an increased chance to score a hit in a single abstract combat round.
Also, think about an Ogre in OD&D. They get a single attack for 1d6+2 damage. But they attack as a 4-6 HD monster, giving them a +5 to hit, which is equivalent to a 7-9th level fighter. You could consider this difference to model the great strength of the Ogre, which is much higher than any human could have and gives the Ogre an increased chance to score a hit.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 19, 2016 7:48:58 GMT -6
Tolkien's "Beren and Luthien" story to be published in stand-alone format next year, edited by Christopher Tolkien and fully illustrated by Alan Lee. Per a Harpercollins press release, as found on the Too Many Books blog (Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull, who have written many annotated Tolkien books). This format should give the story the attention it deserves! To the general public it's just another part of the Silmarillion. wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/beren-and-luthien/
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 16, 2016 9:14:42 GMT -6
Always did it as you get READ MAGIC and randomly determine another spell -- the rest you find, research, bargain, or quest for... Does anyone know where this began? That's the ruling by the book in BECMI (although I think technically the DM is also given the right to pick both spells, or force both spells to be rolled). I'm assuming it's the same in B/X, but I haven't checked in a while. Did the "Read Magic + 1 random spell" method ever show up before this, in a Dragon article maybe? Or perhaps was it a bit like critical hits and ThAC0, a pervasive house rule that travelled largely by word of mouth and eventually just got baked into the game? The automatic presence of Read Magic in the M-U's spell book is outlined in the 1E DMG (Aug 1979), pg 39, section ACQUISITION OF MAGIC-USER SPELLS in some great Gygaxian prose (complete with sample character name): In addition, each M-U gets one random Offensive, Defensive and Miscellaneous Spell. Or chosen, at the DM's discretion. The later BECMI version is presumably adapted from this. This doesn't appear in any of the earlier rulebooks (OD&D or Holmes or PHB), but possibly appeared somewhere else such as Dragon.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 15, 2016 0:17:47 GMT -6
Russ Nicholson is a man whose art I have admired since I was a teenager in the 80s. I remember staring at his art in the Fiend Folio for hours on end. Such a strange and unique style. Very nice. I love how consistent the style of his line drawings has remained over the decades.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 12, 2016 23:32:34 GMT -6
Finally, we have Guy Fullerton's report posted to the K&KA Alehouse, from yet another session. This is by the far the most detailed set of notes to emerge from these games. * Constrictor Snake, with a teardrop necklace in gut --- this was their first encounter, so must be near entrance * Gelatinous Cube, containing 30 gp, 10 cp, and a potion, possibly frost giant strength (described as a small flask with a cold, minty taste) --- presumably another corridor encounter * Complex of three adjoining rooms: One with "humans giving orders to a goblin", another with four warrior reinforcements (16 GP, pinkie ring w/skull), and the third with an ogre (ermine belt, leather pouch with two small pearls), a "smelly but valuable" bed (no exact value given) and a chest with two sacks of coins (287 SP, 186 GP) * Trophy Room hidden by secret door, containing an ogre and a chest with runes, decipherable with Read Magic, that say "Closed tight, until the bright". The chest will open easily if taken into daylight, and contains silver and a "nice shield (hopefully magic)". * Sacks Room, contains centipedes (with a weak progessive poison) and 570 SP. Behind this room is an empty room. * Stacked Chair Room, here two spiders lurk in the chairs and will attack if the chairs are moved. * Guru Room, contains candles, skulls, a bowl and a man who asks "what do you seek?" and then conjures the item in his hand and says "if you can take it you can keep it". Unsuccessful attempts result in a slap for damage. He can also cast magic missile --- likely the conjurer/monk mentioned above. * Urn Room, contains 3 terracotta urns, one empty, the others filled with urine or sand. The sand urn contains something "purpleish", revealed when the urn was pushed over (a potion that broke?). The urine urn hides silver coins. This is the treasure of the guru, and he will demand it back and cast Magic Missile on the thief. * Goblin Room, Two dozen goblins playing dice, have 120 cp, 92 sp. PLAYER'S MAPOn this map, north is pointing down. It partially matches Jon's map if flipped vertically. The staircase is where they entered from the surface.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 6, 2016 22:20:41 GMT -6
I've update the blog post with more information - quotes from Tolkien, a Roger Moore Dragon article, and more Gary, including an explanation of the Vile Rune: "a fist with a raised digit"...!
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 6, 2016 22:03:43 GMT -6
My local store is the War house in Long Beach, CA. It's a store that I've been patronizing for about twenty years now, but it's one of the true hobby originals that started in the mid-1970s. The store is listed in an ad for stores that carry products by The Armory in my Best of Dragon vol.1. The owner even formed the Balboa Game company which published Warlock (an early OD&D variant game) as well as a few supplements. I think they still have copies! I bought one about five or six years ago that cost me less than 10 bucks and I've seen copies go for quite a bit of money. So here's a shout out to the War House! Still going strong I guess. My most recent purchase there was Call of Cthulhu 7th edition. Here's a video of the War House that Hawklord posted in a comment to my blog once. www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0H2LytGCEE#t=1m11sthewarhouselongbeach.com/ - they are celebrating their 40th anniversary on Oct 15th! zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2013/10/1978-ap-d-article.htmlAwesome to hear they may still have Warlock in stock!
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 4, 2016 7:42:36 GMT -6
From a new blog post: zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2016/10/gygaxian-orc-tribes.htmlGary Gygax on the orc tribes of Castle Greyhawk, Enworld Q&A 2/2/04: "The orcs in the dungeon were of two separate tribes, but I have forgotten the names I gave them. As near as I can recollect, one was the Grinning Skull and the other was the Bloody Axe. they were all cut down or made into vassals by Robilar and Terik, with a good deal of assistance from Tenser." Notes:Chainmail (2nd print, 1972): The names of five different tribes are given, all based on Tolkien (Orcs of the Red Eye, Orcs of Mordor, Orcs of the Mountains, Orcs of the White Hand and Isengarders). This was removed from later printings along with other Tolkien references. This clearly shows us that Gygax's idea of various Orc tribes with different names was influenced by Tolkien. OD&D Vol 2 (1st print, 1974): "the number of different tribes of Orcs can be as varied as desired, basing the decision on Tolkien or random chance". No specific tribe names are given. The reference to "Tolkien or random chance" was deleted in later printings. Holmes (July 1977): "There are many tribes or nations of orcs". Monster Manual (Dec 1977): Here we get Gygaxian tribe names, including Vile Rune, Bloody Head (perhaps the actual name for Grinning Skull?), Death Moon, Broken Bone, Evil Eye, Leprous Hand, Rotting Eye, Dripping Blade (perhaps the actual name for Bloody Axe?). B2 Keep on the Borderlands (1979): In the Caves of Chaos, there are two rival orc tribes, in Caves B & C. This is the only type of humanoid found in two different groups. The tribe in Cave B decorates its cave entrance with "cheerful greetings" - heads and skulls placed in niches in a wall - perhaps a reference to the Bloody Head/Grinning Skull/Bloody Skull. Dragon #57 (Jan 1982, "Developments from Stonefist to South Province"): "Three major groups vie for control of the whole of the Bone March. The most powerful group, until the Battle of the Loftwood, was the humanoid group under the orcs of the Vile Rune. Now paramount are the orcs of the Death Moon tribe. Both groups have considerable numbers of various sorts of humanoids serving them. Both are also led by half-orcs and assisted by evil humans. The third power group is a force of ogres and gnolls based in the hills at the head of the Teesar Torrent" (pg 15). WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (1982): "These are Orcs of the Rotting Eye tribe, belonging to the clan of the Jagged Knife. The standard is a huge, glaivelike knife blade with a serrated edge. This blade is colored a rust red and atopa long shaft, beneath it being the circular targe depicting a rotting eye colored yellowgreen and red. This symbol is repeated on the shields of the soldiers, with the jagged-bladed knife seeming to grow out of the rotting eye device. Guards and ranking figures wear dull red clothing. The sub-chief, shaman, and chief also have cloaks of yellowish green, the chief‘s being striped with red, the shaman’s merely bordered with that color" (pg 8). This module is set in the Yatil Mountains in Greyhawk. Castle Zagyg (2008): The first dungeon level ("Storerooms") has a Bloody Skull orc tribe. Bloody Skull may have been the actual name, or was used to replace Bloody Head as the name was already published in the Monster Manual. (cross-posted to the Greyhawk Forums at K&KA, ODD74 & Dragonsfoot)
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 4, 2016 6:28:01 GMT -6
That's a great idea. This is the closest I've got; from one of the Holmes Ref drafts. Rather than presenting it as in the AD&D table, for simplicity I generalized the bonus levels for abilities described in Greyhawk to 1 level for prime of 17, 2 levels for prime of 18. I didn't include Monk, Assassin, Bard or SR classes. Some of this info is specific to Holmes like the Dwarf/Halfling mins. A table like the AD&D one might be more useful for picking and choosing among rules to use (e.g., you could include the level limits table without the racial minimums that Holmes has).
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 30, 2016 11:51:02 GMT -6
Stratochamp on the Acaeum, 3/29/14 afternoon game: * In the castle ruins "there was an opportunity" to cast Read Magic, granting "a +1 one-time boon to all of the party members" * in the dungeon, some goblins and an ogre Paul himself further described the ogre encounter in the same thread: * The PCs were "surrounded by armored fighting men" when attacked by "a massive ogre" wielding a "tree-bough club" Jon Peterson (increment here) played in this same session. In an email to me, he mentioned some of the encounters: * "goblins, hobgoblins, ogres and a couple of gelatinous cubes" This is Jon's Player Map, from a video he made. Based on the similarity with Gary's "binder map", the PCs entered the dungeon via the staircase in the upper right corner of the photo.
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 30, 2016 11:19:03 GMT -6
Sieg is DM Mike, one of the three hosts of the show. I had the pleasure of being on the show over the summer.
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 29, 2016 22:29:41 GMT -6
Now for the player reports... Nesbit37 on the Acaeum, 3/27/14 (?) game: * PC ended up trapped between two gelatinous cubes in a twisting corridor, one had eaten a kobold B'monkey on the Gary Con forums, 3/28/14 game: * "a chaotic monk hanging out in a random chamber" --- presumably the "conjurer/monk" mentioned above * a few goblins * a giant snake
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 28, 2016 21:38:02 GMT -6
I'll summarize what we may know about the dungeon content based on Paul's overview and player game reports. From Paul's overview (see Acaeum link above): * "1 page dungeon map" --- based on player maps, Paul's DM map is similar to at least part of Gary's binder map (see K&KA thread linked above) * "3.25 pages of encounter keys", typed & refers to "color coding" --- the 1-page map doesn't have this color coding, but it was possibly used on a poster map that was hung up during the event at Origins * an NPC "conjurer/monk (5th level)" --- A conjurer is a 3rd level MU in OD&D/AD&D, so possibly a MU/Monk 3/5 (a multi-class combo not seen elsewhere?). Monks first appear as a PC class in Blackmoor (9/75). * a gelatinous cube --- first published in Greyhawk (2/75) * several magic items from Greyhawk * a reference to "Yeenoghu, Demon Lord of Orcs" --- same as his original title in Strategic Preview #5 (Summer of '76). See here for the the full OD&D Yeenoghu. Perhaps indicates presence of orcs on level?
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 25, 2016 20:36:03 GMT -6
I enjoyed the video, hedgehobbit. I really like your idea of using the outcome of the attack rolls to influence the overall thrust (pun intended) of the combat round.
Coincidentally, I just ran a playtest for an OD&D con game last weekend (with my regular game group) and also tried out combat without initiative. Since there's no initiative system clearly described in the LBBs, and to speed up the game for the con, I decided there would be no initiative. Instead, simultaneous combat. Everyone gets to attack even if they die in the round. It's not a death blow, it's just that the outcome of the round is not determined until after everyone has made their attack. Two opponents can kill each other in the same round.
I went even further and had no declarations. With declarations I often feel like each combat round is conducted twice. Instead I just went around the table and had them tell me what they were doing and resolved it then. If they attack, they roll the d20 right away. If casting, the spell goes off right then, since there is no casting time or disruptions mentioned in the LBBs. I only limited casting in that you couldn't cast if hit the round before.
I was using theatre of the mind combat, and the dungeon rooms were small, so I didn't worry too much about exact placement of PCs. If a monster made a hit, or a near hit, I would roll randomly to see which character was being attacked. This also helps with survivability because a monster doesn't necessarily keep hitting the same PC over and over.
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 25, 2016 11:28:09 GMT -6
Not that I know of. So far there's just the info Paul gave in the Acaeum thread, and the con reports/maps from various players at GaryCon. I'd love to have a transcription to run for a game!
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 25, 2016 9:13:04 GMT -6
A few days ago the Against the Wicked City blog had a great post showing off a number of inspirational paintings of European Romantic-era artists: If Romantic-Era Artists Ran D&D CampaignsInspired by this, I wrote one up for Thomas Cole, an American who also painted many European ruins & fantastical landscapes: Thomas Cole, DM
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 25, 2016 8:00:06 GMT -6
See this Gary Con 2014 thread on the Acaeum: www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?cache=1&p=220019&c=1#p220019There's also more discussion here in a Castle Greyhawk thread: www.knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?p=196535#p196535Summary: Paul found a "What is D&D" type-handout from the '70s, most likely from Origins II in 1976, that includes a portion of the first level of Castle Greyhawk, including both a map & key. Paul ran several sessions with this dungeon at Gary's old house at Gary Con 2014. I was able to match several player maps from Paul's game with Gary's binder map of Castle Greyhawk Level One that he used for running OD&D convention games in the '00s.
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 14, 2016 20:40:44 GMT -6
1982: A D&D Odyssey
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 1, 2016 22:52:26 GMT -6
Here's some of my thoughts about Korns. These are things that seem to be unique contributions for the time and ring of familiarity in what we currently know about roleplaying games. Very interesting, derv. Thanks for writing about this.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 4, 2016 22:34:21 GMT -6
HA! This is what I started to play RPGs with! Aaaaaaaaaaaawesome! Have not seen those booklets in 20 years! Thanks, man! You're welcome! I greatly enjoyed those gamebooks when they came out & played the same character (Fori I the Dwarf) through five of them. Never found the Mirkwood one back then, though I have it now. An enterprising fellow turned the system in those books into a whole RPG in 30 pages: Middle-Earth Adventure Game (MEAG)
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 2, 2016 19:06:12 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Jul 23, 2016 23:54:16 GMT -6
The other Man-Types in the Monster List in the Holmes Manuscript are Buccaneers, Cave Men, Dervishes, Mermen, Nomads and Pirates, IIRC. All from OD&D Vol 2, and you've got them all on your list. Holmes also mentions Brigands once in the text (kept in the published version).
Other possibilities would be the NPC professions from OD&D such as Armorer, Sage, Scribe, Alchemist, etc.
The Monster Manual added a few new Man-Types, including Merchant, Pilgrim and Tribesman.
B/X added the various NPC classes as types in the Monster list (Acolyte, Medium, Veteran) plus some others like Noble and Trader.
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Post by Zenopus on Jul 23, 2016 15:12:41 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Jul 23, 2016 7:16:09 GMT -6
Neat thread. I'd never heard of casting your own minis or Prince August before. What material is the metal made of?
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Post by Zenopus on Jul 20, 2016 16:30:18 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Jul 9, 2016 23:22:36 GMT -6
Holmes Basic took the first steps towards rectifying this, explicitly stating that "Characters can be either male or female" (pg 7). Plus it uses "he or she" in a few instances, including when referring to the DM (pg 5, left column). A female character is referred to on page 5 (right column), and one of the adventurers in the example of combat is "Priestess Clarissa", who smashes a spider with her heavy mace (pg 21). While the term "fighting men" is still used, "fighters" appears almost as often as an alternative. Lemunda in the Sample Dungeon is "lovely" but also a "good fighter" who is "Level 2" and crafty enough to keep a concealed dagger.
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Post by Zenopus on Jul 6, 2016 11:46:22 GMT -6
In the game I've played in for the last six years, our party recently finished a multi-session quest to retrieve the soul of a cleric who had lost it to a Deck of Many Things. We entered the Abyss from the Temple of Elemental Evil and traveled to the Plane of Concordant Opposition and then to Sigil. The DM used the Planescape setting. In Sigil we had to track down who had bought his soul. It turned out to have been his former deity, Wee Jas - his cleric had changed deities early on in the campaign. We were able to retrieve him in exchange for his henchman who volunteered to stay, and the cleric is back to being a servant of Wee Jas. A very creative adventure by our DM.
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Post by Zenopus on Jul 4, 2016 22:56:56 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Jun 29, 2016 23:37:19 GMT -6
I went through this exact quest earlier this year, looking for the Bath 1966 Ancients Rules. IIRC, the Ancients Rules in Lost Tales on Amazon are not actually Bath's rules, but the Medieval rules are. Here's the link to Lost Tales on Amazon: Lost TalesThe Table of Contents differs from what owlorbs posted above for #1. Instead of "Rules for Ancient Wargames 1000 BC - AD 900 by Tony Bath", it has "Rules for Ancient Wargames 300BC-AD500". If you look at the "Sources" page in the preview it says: "Rules for Ancient Wargames 300BC-AD500, previously unpublished". This contrasts with the Medieval Rules, which in both locations are indicated as being by Tony Bath, and in sources as having appeared in Wargamer's Newsletter. So it would appear that the Ancient Rules in the currently available Lost Tales is a previously unpublished set by Featherstone himself, rather than Bath (although presumably they are similar). But the Medieval Rules are Bath's, and from Wargamer's Newsletter, although possibly with minor changes.
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Post by Zenopus on Jun 19, 2016 22:02:16 GMT -6
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