Tag Archives: News Reviews & Culture

RPGs

Druids and Undead

2 Comments

Druids in First Edition AD&D do not have the ability to turn undead. Other than physical combat or druid spells, druids are just like anyone else when it comes to undead.

I have always ran druids as written in AD&D to not have any turning ability, or anything else that makes them stand out from other classes, when it comes to undead.

However, my recent articles on Druids and Alignment and Druids and Their Environment, have me thinking about all aspects of druids.

Since druids are nature priests who rely on their connection with nature and the right kinds of leaves for their magic, and undead, which for skeletons and zombies at least, are unnatural magical creations, it seems to me that druids should have some ability or spell to deal with such unnatural creatures.

More powerful undead are creatures created by their own force of will, being attacked and killed by similar creatures, or creatures of or connected to the negative material plane.

The only druid spell dealing with the dead is reincarnate, the one spell no player wants to try, or end up a badger, or other non preferred animal or demi-human race. Reincarnation only affects humans and demi-humans that have been dead less than a week, and it requires touching the body. So only very freshly killed and animated corpses would be affected. Once an undead is dispatched, one would rarely, if at all, decide to reincarnate the corpse.

I even reviewed Unearthed Arcana to make sure there are no other first edition druid spells dealing with the undead. There is the first level cleric spell, invisibility to undead. I can see that being used by a druid, but only being effective in a natural environment, i.e. not a dungeon, tomb, temple, or city.

One idea I had is a druid power, perhaps for 3rd or 4th level druids, to “banish abomination”, which would include magically created creatures that are not born that way. So skeletons, zombies, homonculi, golems, clones (as per the Magic User spell), and similar magically created creatures.

The effects of this power could be to stop the unnatural creatures from approaching them or their designated area of protection. The limitation is that it would require the druid to be in a natural environment with some form of natural life. Thus an underground cave system or cavern with cave life forms, would suffice, but a mine, dungeon, tomb, city, or graveyard would not be a natural setting, unless it is an old abandoned area and the plant and animal life is taking over, like many “lost” jungle cities. This could affect all unnatural creatures within so many feet or yards per level.

My thought was for it to be 100 feet or yards per level of the druid. So it could be a moving point centered on the druid, so that a druid could pass through a swarm of such creatures, or it could be centered on a location, like a dryad’s tree, or a holy grove of oaks, or the druid’s home.

Higher order undead that seek to destroy life, would be a challenge for a druid. Life hating, level draining undead may not have a reason to cross a forest or swamp. An ancient barrow in the midst of a forest might have wights, but they are limited to the barrows and the druid wouldn’t go there without good reason.

Druids with an evil bent and keyed into the dark, corrupting powers of nature, might be into creating skeletons and zombies and have ways of controlling them. Unless skeletons and zombies are controlled by an evil cleric, the creating druid would have control of them. If they lost control of their creations, how would they get control back? There is a plot hook for a band of evil druids who have a device that lets them control created undead. Perhaps they have a cleric among them. Maybe a dual-class cleric/druid?

This makes me curious how other editions of D&D dealt with this, as well as other clones and rules. I have OSRIC, and of course, it sticks to AD&D. I have PDFs of many other rule sets, but as of yet, have not checked them for how they handle druids and undead.

I don’t recall any articles in Dragon magazine on this topic, but I haven’t read it since I got rid of my collection nearly 25 years ago.

I am also curious how other DMs/GMs have home-ruled on this.

I have never played a druid, but have one player in my campaign with a druid, but I have ruled that it is by the book on matters of undead where druids are concerned. I am not by the book on alignment for druids, so now I am wondering why I am this way with undead. It won’t affect game play, if the ability to affect undead by druids is for higher level druids, other than one NPC druid the party helped with a few skeletons. I can just retcon that it was a test from the druid for her further assistance, and payment for training the party druid (which it was). The players don’t even have to know.

These three posts on druids have me wanting to do more in the outdoors/wilderness in my campaign. At least I have ideas for where to go with things if they never make it to the ruined city.

RPGs

Isometric Pads – Update #1

2 Comments

Yesterday, I posted that I received my order of 3 50-sheet pads of the same isometric paper that +Dyson Logos says he uses.

I finally got my home office where I can use my flatbed scanner again and scanned my first doodles using this paper.

I drew some shapes that I can see, and had a realization that a 3-D cube drawn in 2-D is a hexagon with a triskelion-like set of lines in the middle, that divides it into thirds. Thus, I drew two connected hexes, like on a map.

My expectation was that it was perforated paper, but it has a glue binding along the top and you just tear off the whole sheet, so the entire black line label is repeated on every sheet. this is not a problem, just something to be aware of.

My initial impressions were that the paper was slick, but it holds ink well. I did not smudge test it with fresh ink, so I don’t know how much it will smudge.

I did find that one has to get used to isometric paper and start with pencil to get the placement of items before resorting to ink.

I like how my stairs turned out for my first effort, in spite of having things not quite right. I made a mostly 3-D looking raised star, after I goofed my first attempt.

The last thing I tried was a tower with a smaller tower on top of it. I need to work on perspective of the little touches I added for battlements, but it isn’t bad for a quick try out.

The blue lines and dots did not entirely fade away, but someone with skill with a graphics program should be able to clean those up fairly easily.

The last thing I see, is that I need to either really slow down and make my lines look straighter, or use a straight edge. Again, like most things, practice brings improvement. I have not done a lot of map making for a long time. Now that I am working from home, I can use slow periods or conference calls to work on map ideas.

Below are different pictures using my cell phone.

CAM00621
CAM00620
CAM00622
RPGs

Slower Signups by RPG Bloggers to this Year’s A to Z Challenge

3 Comments

For last year’s A to Z Challenge I made a group of links of RPG bloggers that signed up for the 2014 A to Z Challenge. There were a lot of them, twenty-one by my count.

So far, there are nine RPG bloggers, counting me, signed up for the 2015 challenge. Will there be a slew of last minute sign ups, or will the trickle until the deadline be it?

I can see that this is not for everyone.

I find it a good way to get the creative juices flowing as it forces you to think. Coming up with a coherent theme even more of a challenge. As with the rest of my blogging, I use it to share my ideas, and to gather and organize ideas for my campaign(s).

Players don’t always appreciate or get to see all the details. Blogging helps to get the ideas out there and to distill them to the bare essentials needed for presentation in actual play.

Also four years of college note taking and three years of grad school note taking ruined my handwriting. If I’m not careful when I write, even I can’t read it. I used to get A’s in penmanship. So typing makes it easier for me to go back and read what I wrote.  :/

RPGs

Politically Correct Monster Designations

Leave a comment

So called political correctness can be taken too far. I am bald, so I can talk about that without insulting other people (Well, it’s the internet, so probably not.).

Bald has been called follically challenged. Short has been called vertically challenged. Many so-called politically correct terms are so ridiculous as to avoid calling a spade a shovel. Often one has no idea what someone is talking about.

Monster, should be “life form”, “being”, “entity”, or “creature”. To call something monstrous is a value judgement.

For example, a rust monster should be referred to as an oxidation enhancing creature.

Undead should be called life challenged.

Vampires should be called hemoglobin deficient.

This is a good exercise to get the creative juices flowing. Try to do it without a dictionary, thesaurus, or the internet, just the terms that pop into your head. While such new names for creatures may not be used in play, it gives an added description or new way of looking at them, perhaps a way to understand the motivations of the creatures that are not mentally challenged.

Skeletons and zombies in D&D are the robots of the fantasy world, constructs that don’t know or care. Similar constructs without a will of their own, won’t know or care, their only motivation is their last command. Low or non-intelligent creatures’ motivations may only be food, shelter, and procreation. But just because they don’t have language, doesn’t mean you can’t give them a neutral and unoffensive name.

Have fun with it and be creative, please share your best ones.

RPGs

Isometric Pads

4 Comments

I follow +Dyson Logos and his maps. The other day, he mentioned that he got his isometric graph paper pads as a gift from Lee Valley Tools. It is a Canadian based company I had not heard of, but I ordered three pads and they arrived yesterday. I am just now writing about them and getting the pictures posted.

The brand is a Canadian brand called Veritas. The first page is the start of the pad of sheets and not a slick cover like some pads of paper might have.

In the top left corner, each page has “From the workbench of” and below it “date”. The original design is for use in a workshop. I can see how this would help design woodworking and other projects in 3-D.

I had a very basic introduction to “drafting” in 7th grade shop. We use 5 squares per inch graph paper to do block lettering and draw cubes in three dimensions. I would have had to take a specialize class if I wanted to do real drafting. It is a dying skill to draft on paper, and for making maps, I wouldn’t mind knowing the right way to do it.

Oh, well, I have rulers, and some templates and a compass, so for my use, I can have fun.

I really like the 3-D look one can get with these. My whole reason for buying Ravenloft when it came out was the isometric maps. I also like the Dungeoneer Survival Guide and it’s instructions on how to make your own isometric maps from regular graph paper, or to use the sample images on a photocopier.

I’m still getting settled in to working at home, but things are falling into place, so perhaps I can start practicing, and coming up with something of my own to share. If nothing else, I’ll have fun with it, and come up with something good enough for use in my own games.

I like the big ziplock bag the three pads came in. The box is big enough for more than double the three pads I ordered. I don’t see me needing more than 150 sheets. That’s a LOT of drawing!

Unboxing Isometric Pads
Unboxing Isometric Pads
Fancy Ziplock Bag
Fancy Ziplock Bag
Label on each sheet
Label on each sheet
RPGs

Latest From Amazon – Desk Pads and Wiz Dice

4 Comments

Last Monday a new package arrived from Amazon with three Tops Quadrille Desk Pads and a package of 100+ Wiz Dice.

I wrote about the quadrille desk pad I once had when I shared the map of a town, for a character in my brother’s campaign. I was reminded of this by the Dungeon Deskpad Kickstarter. I had been toying with the idea of getting quad ruled desk pads for over a year, and I decided to get them, and to joining the Dungeon Deskpad Kickstarter. Once I get my overseas shipment I will take pictures to compare..

The brand of desk pads I got are the Tops. Each is individually wrapped in plastic. They were the least expensive. They are not all square and not all the same exact size. That’s OK. I plan on using them for mapping out an abandoned ancient city/megadungeon. I can also use a sheet for a single sheet map of the town that is the current home base of the players in my campaign. The rough map I have for the town of Larenda is two quad ruled sheets taped together. I can even get a roll of clear plastic “shelf-paper”, and laminate some of these sheets for a quick and cheap dry erase surface. I usually only use maps and such to show relative position. Even if it is an exercise only for me, it will be fun. The one draw back to paper this size for maps is that it is too big for my scanners. I will have o do better than a quick picture with my cellphone. I’ll have to put my cheap camera on one of my cheap tripods, to get good pictures for online.

02TopsPad-Closeup 03TopsPad-Back 01DeskPads&Dice

After ordering the two sets of Koplow Who Knew Dice that arrived last week, I ran across an article on Imagur about Wiz Dice and their bag of 100+ dice vs. the Chessex Pound’O Dice, and I ordered the Wiz Dice based on that article. I am always needing more d4’s and d8’s in play. The Wiz Dice 100+ pack includes a fancy drawstring bag with complete matched seven dice set. I ended up with 103 dice plus the set in the bag, for 110 new dice. I received 15 of each die, except for the d12 and d20, which I received 14 of each of those. So I ended up with 14 matched sets of seven dice, 15 counting the drawstring bad, and one partial set missing the d12 and d20. I have matched sets of solid colors and then the “gem” style dice of the same color: green, blue, red, yellow, purple, and red. Then a solid black, swirled black, and a white set. I have one complete orange set and the other orange set is incomplete. I don’t think most people get that many matched sets. I think it is cool that I have enough dice for 15 players from one order of dice, not counting how many ever sets I had before.

One idea I had with this package of dice is making multiple dice tables using different colors of the same die. For example, if I need a table for 14 different results of a d20, or 15 results of a d8, I can do it.

Magic missile is resolved quicker with more d4’s. Lots of monsters taking their attack is resolved quicker with more d20’s.

Blue is my favorite color, but in dice, I find black and red to be my preference. For some reason, it is the same way for me with Risk. For some colors, I prefer the gem style over the solid style.

I guess I need to have a post with a picture of all my dice. They are not all in one place at the moment, so I will have to defer that for a bit.

I also realized that having so many d10’s makes it easy to roll a d1,000 or a d10,000, etc. just specify which color is which digit. I know that they make custom d10,000 dice for such a thing, but I have to tone it down a bit. I’ve spent more on dice in the first two months of 2015 than I spent all of last year, and most of the three plus decades before that. That isn’t to say that I won’t buy more die this year, but I don’t have to buy them all in the first quarter.

10GreenSets 11YellowSets 12RedSets 13BlueSets 14PurpleSets 15OrangeSets 16Black-BlackSwirl-WhiteSets 04-WizDicePackage 05WizDiceDrawstringBag 06DrawstringBagAndFancySet 07DiceSortedByType 08DiceSortedByMatchedSets 09PartialSetOrangeGemDice

NOTE: Amazon Links are Affiliate Links

RPGs

My First Credit In An RPG Publication

Leave a comment

Joe Johnston published a “How To Hexcrawl” PDF geared toward Labrynth Lord. I read part of it and he mentioned me in the acknowledgements. This is not the first RPG product that I have been involved in, just the first one published. How cool is that?

You really should go out and get this, for no other reason, than I helped! Also it is PWYW, so you can get it for free and tip him later.

It is a quick and simple introduction to hex crawls and he lists resources for free existing hex maps, three sources/programs for creating your own hex maps, and the hexcrawl articles on Welshpiper, Bat in the Attic, and The Alexandrian.

RPGs

Rakshasa

2 Comments

As a kid I remember watching Kolchak the Night Stalker, the movies and the TV show. I don’t recall all the details, but have been watching the TV show online. I managed to find the movies from before the TV show on YouTube and watched them. If you are interested in watching these, then spoiler alert!!

The other day, I watched an episode that dealt with a rakshasa and the method of slaying them was a blessed crossbow bolt, as it is in the AD&D Monster Manual.

I found that interesting. I am not familiar with most of Indian mythology. There are times I wish I had footnotes for the source, or the inspiration used for these creatures. Until the Monster Manual, were any of these monsters from myth and legend in any single book?

I find that the Night Stalker series gets a bit repetitive, but having him be the only one or nearly the only one who gets what is going on, makes it interesting. With all the creatures he killed, what level would he be?

Going from memory, and I have not finished the series, he has killed two vampires, one werewolf, one zombie, and one rakshasa. There are other creatures, but some I don’t recall, or they do not have a creature stated. I’m not going to stat out creatures for this exercise. Assuming average hit points, I came up with 5,265 experience points which is halfway through 3rd level fighter. Since AD&D does not reward as much XP for monsters, this is reasonable. Karl never gets any treasure, and is the reluctant hero because he knows the truth and if no one is going to do anything about these creatures, then he must do it. Karl’s only reward is that he has save the city or the world.

In some shows, he does not kill the creature, but drives them off, or for the android episode, tries to help. In the electricity monster he gets people to listen, but the usual cover up, similar to the first movie with the vampire, is of no benefit to him.

So after two TV movies and one season of a TV show, I would estimate he earned the experience to be a 5th level fighter, perhaps 6th. If a thief, it would be higher. He did not use magic or pray to the gods, but did use items blessed by others, or had others bless an item. Karl does not gain in proficiency in fighting, but rather uses his mind. He is more like a sage out to do good based on his experience, knowledge, and research.

I can see how these shows can give ideas for a “modern fantasy” setting, or some variation on a science fiction or horror genre.

This show also takes me back to sitting around the TV as a family and talking about the show during the commercials. Unlike today, where it seems that everyone has their own media device and the household is in their individual media world.

RPGs, Writing

One Page Dungeon Contest – 2015

Leave a comment

Last year about this time, I wrote about the 2014 One Page Dungeon Contest, and thought about an entry, but none of my ideas would gel.

I am thinking about the 2015 OPDC with just over two months until the deadline. It is a single page, what’s the big deal, right?

Well a single page requires the most bang for the buck so to speak. One needs a density of information without a density of facts. A hook that evokes ideas, and a map that gives what words cannot. I have a small degree of artistic talent, but it is not a honed or practiced talent, so my efforts are hit and miss.

A one page dungeon also screams for brevity with a conciseness that cuts to the point immediately. As is evident from many of my blog posts, I am skilled at the WALL OF TEXT. It takes effort for me to distill things to the bare essentials.

I could make a submission that is merely an entry, but I want to make a memorable entry that is a contender. Heck, who am I kidding? I want to win!

So I know I need an idea that is just novel enough and easy to convey/explain in a single page. I have some faint wisps of ideas that if I can bring them to fruition and execute them as well as I imagine them, then I have a shot.

Between now and then are my goals of the 2015 A to Z Blogging Challenge and a daily article on this blog between now and April 1st, and other game activities. Plus the Tenkar’s Landing Crowdsourced Sandbox Setting is now ramping up to work on the actual town of Tenkar’s Landing. I need to do my part with an idea or two.