DM Report and DM Tips: Lighthouses, Swords, and Derailing Campaigns

Ran a quick session on Saturday, just 3 hours of gaming (we only expected 90 minutes but Son #5 fell asleep on the couch!). WE played in my AD&D 2e campaign, called Blackstone, and the lower level guys went to stop some bad guys from getting intelligence from a ruined abbey.

Getting Girls To Play

  I was reading an article about how to get girls and women to play TRPGs [no, I will not link it] and I came away from it annoyed. I always find it annoying when female authors pull the hat trick of
  1) talking down to men
  2) by giving their personal preferences as universal advice
  3) while also talking down to women

  The author said some stuff I find wrong-headed, so let me give my advice on how to get more girls and women into the hobby.

  Be courteous to everyone.

  Thanks!

What Is Going On With Magic?

I clearly remember a certain moment in 1980. It was about the 12th of August. I was at the desk in my bedroom working on an encounter and going through the various 1e books. Shine A Little Love was playing on the eight track (jealous?). I was taking notes on a sage when POW!
  "What is going on with magic?"

Play Report: Fortress of the Death Knight Lord, End

  You can find part I here.

  The background and characters are the same.

Late Play:  The party immediately crossed the mile-long bridge, grabbed the prisoners (using a magical mirror to see if they were illusions, etc.), and headed west to their camp. At camp they grabbed the other prisoners (who had fled hours earlier), their steeds and supplies, and sung north and east to bypass the fortress, then grabbed a few hours of sleep to avoid forced march penalties. Awakening at Noon, they set out for the rendezvous with the Green Parrot, all while debating taking the sea rather than land.

G.K. Chesterton's Fence, AD&D 1e, and What Happens When You Don't Understand What You Are Changing - A Varied Rant

  The subheading on my blog warns you about my rants.

  G.K. Chesterton was a prolific writer of the early 20th Century who once told a parable about reform and a fence, which I will paraphrase

  Two men are enjoying a pleasant stroll through the country when they come upon a fence barring their way. This rather stout, well-maintained fence stretches from the thick forest on each side and completely blocks the trail.

  The first man looks at it and declares,
  "I do not understand why this fence is here; I will tear it down so I may continue to enjoy my stroll!"

  The second man replies,
  "If you do not understand why this fence is here you certainly should not tear it down." "What if it prevents a mad bull from running wild? Go, research and think about it and once you understand why it is here, then you might still want to tear it down."

  This is a simple concept - understand why before you remove or change - that seems to escape a lot of people. Especially some in gaming.

  In high school I had a friend named George who ran a game of AD&D 1e. We had two players that were in both groups and he and I spoke about the game fairly often. One of our 'shared' players, a guy named Brent, loved to play elves but hated, hated, hated, the level limits on elves. He argued with me often that he should be able to go to any level he could as an elf. I always said no.
  George said 'ok' and removed all level limits on all demi-humans. Then he removed all class limits. Then he removed all characteristic limits from demi-humans. He had removed alignment restrictions to classes before any of this.
  Then he was wondering why there were so many half-orc fighter/assassins in his game. Never mind the slew of elven fighter/magic-users with castles. And no human PCs.

  They did not understand the why of class, level, and stat requirements in AD&D 1e and they tore them out without understanding them. As a result, they had a wild bull get loose.

  If you look at the 1e limitations on demi-humans you see some interesting things:

1. Only Humans, Half-orcs, and strong Dwarves are establishing domain fortresses
2. Only Half-orcs can't establish a thieves guild
3. Only Humans, Half-elves, and Half-orcs can be cleric PCs and only Humans are any good at it

  Not only do these restrictions make guys who can, say, wear armor while casting Lightning Bolt rare and therefore more interesting, it means there are great reasons for playing humans - the domain game.

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  In 1e half-elves and gnomes have access to classes other demi-humans can't be: half-elves can be rangers, gnomes can be illusionists. Half-elves are (in my experience) popular because they have so many possible multi-class combinations but gnomes have that sweet niche of being illusionist/somethings. Who doesn't want a fighter/illusionist or illusionist/thief in the party?!

  In 3e there was a decision to let any race be any class. Sure they tried to give a sop to things by saying some races were 'better suited' to certain classes, but especially for gnomes that changed around a bit, etc.
  When 4e came out I remember reading a statement from one of the designers about why gnomes had become 'monsters'. He said [paraphrased] "Well, they were just a lot like dwarves and we really didn't understand why anyone would play them or what they were for."
  OK, leaving aside the different flavors of elf available, the reason that gnomes had nothing special about them because the designers of 3e removed what made them special! Team A tore down a fence they didn't understand and that resulted in Team B not really grasping why those post holes were all over the place.

  Half-elves and Half-orcs are, as I mentioned, the only demi-humans that can be cleric PCs. Despite the low level cap this works out to be an advantage because this makes these races the source of multi-class clerics, combos that are always welcome in any party. If you let every demi-human be a cleric and expand the access to multi-class combinations there is no reason to play a half-elf - after all, if elves, who have better bonuses, etc., can do the same thing being an elf makes more meta-sense than being a half-elf.

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  There are plenty of other examples. The most common one I see is 'Gee, I don't understand alignment, so I removed it' followed by 'why do all my players play murderhobos?!'.
 It's a puzzle.

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At the end of the day (and near the end of my rant!) the radical changes by some who want to 'fix' level limits, racial class restrictions, and even alignment where these limits are replaced by nothing reveal mainly two things about the people making the changes: they don't understand the why of these game elements and they don't grasp that Gary was actually a competent, good, even great game designer.

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End Rant.

Talking to New Gamers

  About 3 weeks ago my oldest son ran a D&D session for some friends of his who had never, ever played anything close to an RPG before - not even on a console or computer. He used AD&D 1e with my initiative and combat sequence rules (see the Products page, kids!) and created all-new adventures. he was careful to include a magical pool.

  Two of these players, whom I will call Aaron and Alice, were at a dance I chaperoned last night.

  I highly recommend chaperoning teen dances at a church social hall. Adorable kids everywhere being Very Earnest.

  Anyway, Alice is the sort of girl who dances a lot (Irish, tap, ballet, etc.) and plays 5 instruments and sings. She has a prodigious knowledge of folk songs and folk tales, too. I asked her about the game and she said  [paraphrase],

  "It was wonderful! It was a combination of acting, storytelling, and a puzzle game. I realized my character is like in a movie or a book - she can look like anything and such. But the rules on levels and abilities means that it isn't just daydreaming."

  Then I spoke to Aaron. Aaron is an apprentice blacksmith with Southern Blacksmith Association (and almost a journeyman at 18!), makes his own clothes (including shoes and belts) and sells hand-made swords to guys and gals going to DragonCon. He's the sort of kid that when his mom tells him to mow the lawn he uses the scythe he made himself.

  He trumped me by first asking me to tell him some of the outrageous adventures I had gone through. So I told him of a game where I had a 7th level magic-user aiding in the defense of a frontier castle with his laser carbine and pearl-handled .45 auto-pistols. He laughed heartily and said [paraphrased],

  "That's great! I am so sad I didn't know about this game earlier. There are rules, and a referee, but the strict rules mean you can do anything! I mean, how long has your gme been running? almost 40 years? I can't imagine how much cool stuff there is to see and do!"

  They both are eager to play more often and are actively recruiting friends to join them. Alice has read through the PHB and is considering buying a copy for herself - I pointed her to OSRIC for now.

  I love hearing this from newbies!