Tag Archives: Fluff/Inspiration

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Weekly D&D Game

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Wednesday night is the AD&D 1st edition campaign I play in. We all just hit second level after we roll played selling loot and dealing with the aftermath of being famous, and getting training. A lot of loot is now gone thanks to training, so back to the adventuring life! We go from 8:00 PM to about midnight Eastern. Tonight was our 7th session.

We get 150 XP for a session write-up and take turns for that. We just started getting 10 XP for each NPC and location/business when add to the campaign Google+ site.

Google+ Hangouts and Roll20 is what we use. We use theater of the mind instead of maps. We use tokens for characters and monster placement. We use the whiteboard pen to mark where things are, but not mapping.

It has worked rather well.

We lost one player after two or three sessions, and another player dropped out a few hours just before our session. So we are looking for two new players. The DM is in charge of that. Hopefully, we get someone who fits the group.

Last week it looked like we were headed for a TPK, but we started to roll just good enough to win.

RPGs

Collapsing Walls

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A rule of thumb for firefighters and the “collapse zone” for falling walls is 1.5 times the height of the wall.

That is, if a wall is 30 feet high, when it collapses from loss of structural integrity, such as through a fire, it will cover a distance of approximately 45 feet from the base of the wall, for the length of the wall that collapses.

An explosion would extend the collapse zone, depending on the strength of the explosion.

This should make it quick and easy to deal with this type of scenario, such as a siege or earthquake.

Way back when, I was a volunteer firefighter. My recollection of this rule was wrong, so I’m glad that I googled for the right terminology.

RPGs

Space Nazis – Iron Sky

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I just watched the movie Iron Sky.  the premise is that the Nazis retreated to the moon in 1945, and a US mission to the moon in 2018 reveals them.

It was better than I expected. It is a comedy/farce, with the feel of a WWII movie mixed in with a bit of 007, and a dash of the advertising/propaganda business.

It was produced in Finland, Germany, Australia, and New York. It pokes fun at Nazis, America, and the UN. The UN is renamed in the movie to something else, but is a stand in for the UN.

It reveals how the rest of the world views Americans as warmongers, and not much better than the Nazis. Unfortunately, we Americans have let our leaders piss off the rest of the world so much that we need the military we have to keep them at bay.

I won’t delve into the politics further here. As an American, if you can just let the jabs at America pass, you can enjoy this movie.

RPGs

Day 8 H is for Half-Elf

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April 9, 2014
April 9, 2014

Half-elves were rare in Tolkien’s world. Unlike D&D half-elves, in Tolkien’s world they had to choose between being an elf or a human. If they chose to be elves, they had the same immortality as any other elf. Elrond and his brother were the first with this choice. Elrond chose to be an elf. His brother, Elros, chose to be human, although with triple or more the normal human lifespan. Elros led to the Kings of Numenor and later of Gondor and Arnor. Most people know the later tale of Aragorn and Arwen, if not from the books from the Hollywood take on it in the Lord of the Rings movies.

In D&D, half-elves are not described this way. I don’t know if it was D&D or something else that gave rise to the idea that elves have pointy ears. They are obviously much more common in D&D than in Tolkien’s world, and also have about three times the lifespan as humans. They have some of the advantages of elves and are often the best choice for getting the most options out of a character in AD&D. My favorite and longest played character, Griswald, is a half-elf with slightly above average ability scores, but not exceptional. His highest ability is a 14. He is a Fighter/Cleric/Magic-User which lets him wear armor, heal himself and others, and do great damage to enemies. Such a character also takes more time to prepare spells at his level, and there is a lot of information to keep straight, so such a character is hard to play without having built up to that over time. I know that as a DM I could run an NPC with similar abilities without too much trouble, but a DM who has never played such a character will miss out on a lot of the possibilities.

RPGs

Dragonslayer

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I just finished watching the 1981 movie, Dragonslayer.

I liked it when I saw it back in ’81, and each time since. It has been several years since I last saw it. I forgot how cheesy the music is at the end. It reminds me of Lost In Space, the series, not the movie.

As with back in the theater way back when, I still see a d8 when I look at the amulet/phylactery. Did any other gamers clue in on that? I know I’m not the only one as my brother and the friends we went with back then all noticed it.

If you haven’t seen it, rent it or if you have NetFlix, you can watch it online.

 

RPGs

Day 6 F is for Fireball

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April 7, 2014
April 7, 2014

In the AD&D rules, a fireball is a 40′ diameter sphere, which is 33,000 cubic feet. My longest played character, Griswald, got quite good at throwing them underground in what we called dungeon wars.

Under the castle evil was detected and the king order the lower dungeons sealed. When a few scullery maids disappeared, Griswald was tasked with finding out what happened.

Orcs, and many others were found. Griswald could not mount enough force on his own to dislodge them. It turns out there was an old tunnel in the hills that lead to the depths of the caverns under the castle.

Griswald mapped out the one level of the dungeon and knew where he could throw a fireball and have it not affect his troops. In all his casting, he only miscalculated once and only one friendly troop was injured a 5th level captain hireling, who ended up with a scar from his helmet failing it’s save and melting. Thankfully, that hireling is still a loyal member of the team.

The problem with using a fireball when it got so bad that the large number of incoming orcs and other baddies were defeating the available troops, is that all the wooden doors would be destroyed and Griswald’s forces would have to rush to put in new doors. Finally, Griswald was able to get some help from all the other high level characters in the campaign and we pushed on to the caverns below. Caverns so huge that a fireball could easily only affect the enemy. In my brother’s game, he has a Battlemagic Fireball which does the same 1d6 damage per level, but it is triple the volume. These caverns were so big, the player wizard that had that could throw those.

We then found a temple to Orcus and desecrated it. Orcus doesn’t like us. Not good when he is at least aware of your activities, let alone your name and address.

Dungeon wars came to an end when there was a great earthquake that hit the kingdom and effected such a large area that not only did the castle fall into the caverns below, but the orcs on the borders were weakened enough that Griswald was able to push a few smaller orc tribes out of his ducal patrimony that was overrun and abandoned in a civil war decades before his birth. Lots of fireballs were involved with winning and keeping that.

Fireballs, destroying enemies and causing friendly fire incidents for centuries.

RPGs

Day 5 E is for Elves

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April 5, 2014
April 5, 2014

Elves in D&D are not Tolkien Elves. They are a slight mix of Tolkien, but also ideas from other books and mythology. Tolkien’s elves were tall, usually taller than men. They were powerful. They are likened to angels. An elf lord in Tolkien’s world was someone you did not want to meet in battle.

In D&D, they are short with pointy ears. They have a long life-span, but can’t gain the power as counted in levels of experience, while humans have no limit. This is in AD&D 1st edition. I believe that 2nd edition removed that limit. Some explain this that elves are on the decline and humans are rising. This is a concept from Tolkien. I don’t like the limit. An elf may have a millennium plus lifespan, but it gets more difficult to advance in levels the higher you go. Adventuring is dangerous. After a while elves would retire from adventuring and spend their time building their territory, or studying magic and making items. Without elves of sufficient level to make items, where do all the magical elvish items come from?

RPGs

Day 3 C is for Campaign

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April 3, 2014
April 3, 2014

In D&D the term campaign most often means a setting with an ultimate goal. It is a term taken from the military, as in military campaign, since miniature wargaming was the structure from which RPGs emerged.

For many, campaign is a unique world/realm, and if it flops, the campaign is scrapped, and the would-be DM, must start over from scratch

For others, campaign can mean the setting a given DM uses no matter how many groups of players flop or thrive. Talented DMs may run multiple gaming groups in the same general area in their game world on the same time line. Others may separate their players and each is in a unique instance of the game world, like parallel universes. For the first, the players can easily switch which group they are with, for the second, some sort of magical portal transports them to the other timeline.

The type of campaign that encompasses a world/game setting is also called  a milieu, which means setting, and can have multiple campaigns run simultaneously or in sequence, or both.

The idea of a campaign as a one-shot world is from the heavily story driven type of play where there is an ultimate goal to the setting and once it is achieved, there is no sense to go on. To continue play requires a new setting for a new campaign. I can see where some might like this type of play, but that is an enormous amount of work.

It makes more sense to me to have a game world that can offer multiple locations for players to adventure. In this way, the DM can develop one setting, and spend the rest of their time fleshing out the details of tombs, caverns, lairs, treasure, magic, dungeons, villains, and monsters in a given area.

This can work for a fantasy world, where a continent or sub-continent sized area is roughly sketched, and the details of the starting area are worked out and the players are let loose to figure things out. For a space based science fiction game, why plan out multiple start systems and their planets, only to have to do it again? For a post-apocalyptic setting, why plan out things only to never use them again?

Obviously if the DM has an idea that he thinks is cool, but flops, it can be scrapped if it is beyond salvaging, or it can be re-worked to be cool. Keep the good ideas and toss the bad ones.

In my game, I have things going on the players only have glimpses of, but have yet to investigate. So far, I have not gone beyond ideas and scribbles of notes. The game needs to mature and simmer some more to determine if my ideas for the machinations of yet to be discovered bad guys fits with what develops in play. I won’t put too much time into some of it until the players are about to discover it. This makes for a fluid and more organic game setting that is more likely to be fun for all.

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OSR Superstar Contest – What would have been my New Creature Entry

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Had I had one of my magic item submissions selected, here is the new creature I developed. As with my magic items, I wrote it with AD&D in mind. Then when I discovered that S&W does not have the Find Familiar Spell I had to hack at it to make it work. I will first present the AD&D version and below that the S&W version. This is the creature mentioned in my Wizard’s Bookstand item.

AD&D version:

Unfamiliar

If a wizard and his/her familiar encounter this creature, it will feed off the bond between them and if not killed, incapacitated or evaded (out of 50 foot range for ten or more consecutive rounds), in ten rounds it will “consume” the wizard/familiar bond.

If the bond is consumed, the familiar will flee, never to be seen or heard from again and the wizard will be unable to summon another familiar for one year.

The creature appears as a cute and fluffy, big-eyed ball of cuteness like a puppy or kitten. The familiar will be friendly towards it, even if an evil or not generally tame sort. The wizard will be reminded of a childhood pet, or will have false memories of a childhood pet.

If there are multiple wizards and familiars in a group, they will sit in a circle and let the creature jump and play in their laps and lick their faces and wag its behind in excitement.

The wizard and familiar will have a 10% chance per round to notice an odd feeling of doom. The wizard must make a saving throw versus charm person to be able to attack the creature. The wizard can attempt to flee, but casts spells to assist fleeing at a penalty. Save vs. wand/staff/rod to successfully cast a spell such as levitate, fly, dimension door, teleport, etc.

The Unfamiliar will stay close to the wizard and his/her familiar so that other with the wizard will have a disadvantage in trying to attack or hit it without hurting the wizard of the familiar.

For wizards without familiars it will attempt to eat the bond or break the spell of “helper” spells like unseen servant, aerial servant, floating disc, etc. Summoned and charmed creatures such as monsters, elementals, demons, etc. will avoid the creature and will not attack it unless the wizard has overcome his charm and the summoned or charmed creature makes it saving throw. If the bond of the summoned/charmed creature is broken, it will immediately attack the wizard.

If there are no wizards in a group the Unfamiliar will hide and avoid them. If there is a wizard in a group or by himself and the wizard has no familiar or summoned/charmed creatures or helper spells in effect, the Unfamiliar will avoid contact and move silently. It will follow in shadows and move silently as a 6th level thief and if a helper spell is cast or a creature charmed or summoned, it will allow itself to be found. The Unfamiliar can sense if an encountered wizard has the ability at the time of first encounter to cast a helper spell or charm or summon monsters. If there are no such capabilities, the Unfamiliar will avoid as if there was no wizard. NOTE: If the wizard or a member of the party has an item that can charm or summon monsters, whether the party knows they have it or not, the Unfamiliar will follow the person(s) with such a device until they use it.

These rare creatures have been known in ancient lore to wreak havoc in schools of magic and even lone wizards with a single apprentice.

If encountered in its lair, usually a cave or abandoned building, dungeon, or ruin, it will have the treasure of charmed and summoned creatures that defeated the wizard whose controlling spell was consumed. The DM will determine if it has affected multiple wizards or not. 50% chance the creature beat the wizard, roll for treasure if the creature is not interested in the wizard’s belongings. 50% chance the wizard beat the creature. Determine if the environment, i.e. neighboring monsters killed the wizard and if they were interested in his possessions.

Treasure Table
Defeated Monsters:
– Charmed monster determine type of creature by the type of creatures that can be charmed. This would usually be fairly low level wizards.
– Summoned monster. determine what level of monster summoning was used and roll for the monster. This can be wizards of a variety of levels.
– Summoned elementals. Determine the type of elemental 1d4 1= air, 2= water, 3= earth, 4= fire. This would be wizards of at least high enough level to summon an elemental.
– summoned demon or extra planar creature.

Defeated Wizards:
Determine the number and levels of wizards defeated. The treasure would include the wizard’s spell book(s), scrolls, potions, rings, wands, staves, etc. Make the amount of treasure and magic fit your style of campaign to avoid overbalancing the players.
You could roll 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, or 1d20 for a random level of wizard and determine the stuff left behind.
Of course, if a player wizard is defeated, all their stuff would be there if the were alone or their accompanying party fled or was defeated.

These creatures have a strange affinity for the Wizard Lock spell. There is something about this more or less permanent spell that allows the creature to feed and ignore other types of feeding. If a creature encounters anyone with a Wizard Locked item, they will make themselves the best friend of the person with that item and will perch on the item or stay within 50 feet of it. Since a wizard lock requires something that can be locked, like a door, chest, or lock, one cannot just cast Wizard Lock to sate this pernicious beast.

There is a 30% chance that when a Wizard’s Bookstand is encountered there will be an Unfamiliar in or on it, or in close proximity. The Unfamiliar will make friends and cozy up to the wizard who claims a found bookstand. Because the magics of Wizards Locks and Wizard’s Bookstands can sate the Unfamiliar, there is a 30% chance that an unfriendly person or creature can open the wizard Locked item or remove a book from the bookstand as if it were not locked or secured by magic. Casting multiple Wizard Locks on the same item will not alter this chance.

Should one attempt to move an Unfamiliar from the 50 foot radius of the Wizard Lock or Wizard’s Bookstand, it will whimper and cry loudly to the point that any guards, even if sleeping or slept, stunned, held or charmed will come to investigate.

Some theorize that the creature’s affinity for wizard locks indicates it true origins as a wizard going after a rival, and in the absence of wizard locks to sate its appetite, the creature looks for other magical bonds upon which to feed. As this is an ancient magical creature known in the oldest manuscripts, it true origins are lost to the mists of time.
Frequency: RARE
Size: Small.

AC:
HD: 4 HP
ATTACKS: Special – Consume wizard/familiar bond.
ST:
Special: Eats spell books.
Move:
Challenge Level:
XP:

*********************************************************

S&W Version [The name alone shows an entirely different tone and took things in a different direction than I planned.]

Bond Breaker

The creature appears as a cute and fluffy, big-eyed ball of cuteness like a puppy or kitten. A magic user will be reminded of a childhood pet, or will have false memories of a childhood pet.

The Bond Breaker will attempt to eat the bond or break the spell of “helper” spells like unseen servant, aerial servant, floating disc, etc. Summoned and charmed creatures such as monsters, elementals, demons, etc. will avoid the creature and will not attack it unless the wizard and the summoned or charmed creature makes a saving throw. If the bond of the summoned/charmed creature is broken, it will immediately attack the wizard. If the charm or summons expires before the Bond Breaker can consume the bond, it will start shrieking loudly and attract the attention of any creatures within 100 feet, or further in a cave or canyon with an echo. This shrieking will continue as long as the party remains within sight of the creature. Such shrieking prevents spell casters from casting spells from memory.

If there are no wizards in a group the Bond Breaker will hide and avoid the group. If there is a wizard in a group or by himself and the wizard has no summoned/charmed creatures or helper spells in effect, the Bond Breaker will avoid contact. It will follow in shadows and move silently as a 6th level thief and if a helper spell is cast or a creature charmed or summoned, it will allow itself to be found. The Bond Breaker can sense if an encountered wizard has the ability at the time of first encounter to cast a helper spell or charm or summon monsters. If there are no such capabilities, the Bond Breaker will avoid as if there was no wizard. NOTE: If the wizard or a member of the party has an item that can charm or summon monsters, whether the party knows they have it or not, the Bond Breaker will follow the person(s) with such a device until they use it.

These rare creatures have been known in ancient lore to wreak havoc in schools of magic and even in remote towers of lone wizards with a single apprentice.

If encountered in its lair, usually a cave or abandoned building, dungeon, or ruin, it will have the treasure of charmed and summoned creatures that were defeated by the wizard whose controlling spell was consumed, or the treasure of wizards defeated by their charmed or summoned creatures. The GM will determine if it has affected multiple wizards or not. 50% chance the creature beat the wizard, roll for treasure if the creature is not interested in the wizard’s belongings. 50% chance the wizard beat the creature. Determine if the environment, i.e. neighboring monsters killed the wizard and if they were interested in his possessions or not.

Treasure Table
Defeated Monsters: d8
1-2 – Charmed monster determine type of creature by the type of creatures that can be charmed. This would usually be fairly low level wizards.
3-4 – Summoned monster. determine what level of monster summoning was used and roll for the monster. This can be wizards of a variety of levels.
5-6 – Summoned elementals. Determine the type of elemental 1d4 1= air, 2= water, 3= earth, 4= fire. This would be wizards of at least high enough level to summon an elemental.
7-8 – Summoned demon or extra planar creature.

Defeated Wizards:
Determine the number and levels of wizards defeated. The treasure would include the wizard’s spell book(s), scrolls, potions, rings, wands, staves, etc. Make the amount of treasure and magic fit your style of campaign to avoid overbalancing the players.
You could roll 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, or 1d20 for a random level of wizard and determine the stuff left behind.
Of course, if a player wizard is defeated, all their stuff would be there if he or she were alone or their accompanying party fled or was defeated.

These creatures have a strange affinity for the Wizard Lock spell. There is something about this permanent spell that allows the creature to feed and ignore feeding on the bonds of charmed or summoned creatures. If a creature encounters anyone with a Wizard Locked item, they will make themselves the best friend of the person with that item and will perch on the item or stay within 50 feet of it. Since a wizard lock requires something that can be locked, like a door, chest, or lock, one cannot just cast Wizard Lock to sate this pernicious beast.

There is a 30% chance that when a Wizard’s Bookstand is encountered there will be Bond Breaker in or on it, or in close proximity. The creature will make friends and cozy up to the wizard who claims a found bookstand. Because the magics of Wizard Locks and Wizard’s Bookstands can sate the Unfamiliar, there is a 30% chance that an unfriendly person or creature can open the wizard Locked item or remove a book from the bookstand as if it were not locked or secured by magic. Casting multiple Wizard Locks on the same item will not alter this chance.

In addition, there is a 10% chance that a Bond Breaker in the presence of a book stand with a spell book on it, will not have fed recently because it grew careless on the abundance of sustaining magics, and will protest attempts to remove the spell book, unless it is shown that there is another familiar to take its place. This occurs even if there is a Wizard Locked item nearby. Even if there is another book to take the place of the book to be removed, there is a 5% chance that the Bond Breaker will be petulant and refuse to cooperate for 1d8 hours. Attempts to remove the book in spite of the protest of the bond breaker in the absence of a book to take the place of the desired book will result in 1d8 hours of shrieking that prevents re-learning of spells for all types of spell casters, magic users, clerics, druids, shaman, witch doctors, etc. in a 100 foot radius of the creature. The distraught creature will stay within close proximity of the one who removed the familiar during this time to show its displeasure.

Should one attempt to move the Bond Breaker from the 50 foot radius of the Wizard Lock or Wizard’s Bookstand, it will whimper and cry loudly to the point that any guards, even if sleeping or slept, stunned, held or charmed will come to investigate.

Some theorize that the creature’s affinity for wizard locks indicates its true origins as a wizard going after a rival, and in the absence of wizard locks to sate its appetite, the creature looks for other magical bonds upon which to feed. As this is an ancient magical creature known in the oldest manuscripts, its true origins are lost to the mists of time.
Frequency: RARE
Size: Small.

AC:
HD: 4 HP
ATTACKS: Shrieking prevents re-learning and casting of memorized spells and attracts other creatures, and counters sleep, hold person/monster within 100 feet. See Special.
ST:
Special: Consumes bonds of charmed and summoned creatures or helper spells.
Move:
Challenge Level:
XP:

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OSR Superstar Contest – Thoughts on Why I Didn’t Win

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I think primarily that in a contest of this nature, especially one in which there are so many other entries there are a few keys to getting on one of the judges’ lists.

  • Brevity. Explain your item and what it does in a couple of paragraphs. Walls of text with complex entries are a sure way to turn off the judges to looking at your entries.
  • Uniqueness. Have an entry that is unique and can be described simply and is easy to drop into the rules.
  • Catchy. It needs a catchy name or description. Something that helps explain what it is without needing to read it.
  • Rules. Write it with the designated rules in mind. Writing it for a close but not quite rule set can show and can make it clunky.

I know that two of my entries were walls of text and all of them did not get written with the target rule set from the start. I did read through all of the various S&W rules before I converted to that rule set, but it greatly hampered the effectiveness of my presentation.

The wall of text is an issue I often have in my blog posts. I get to writing and the ideas related to it just keep flowing. I have the blessing/curse of being able to see connections most others don’t, and it takes a lot of text to explain the connections.

The good news is that I cam up with some unique items that I can use in my game. Whether players find them is another thing.