The Second Generation

Inspired by a now-I-can't-find-it G+ thing.
  Like the header says, I've been playing D&D and other TRPGs for 40 years and going. RPGs are my hobby of choice. My first planned date with my now-wife was a D6 Star Wars session (which I must write up some day). The default present my friends get me is a bundle consisting of a college-ruled notebook, a book of graph paper, and a pack of mechanical pencils.
  My wife has been playing with me since we met, obviously. Once we began having kids we all knew it was just a matter of time. Our oldest (Jack) was inventing D&D monsters when he was 4 (and the lemon devil is feared in my campaigns to this day!). Jack was reading the AD&D PHB by 6 and asking to play soon after, but his 3 younger brothers interrupted a lot, so he and I played a lot of Starfleet Battles, instead.
  Finally, it happened. Nick, the then-youngest, turned 6 and had a ton of patience. I had been working on an AD&D 2e S&P campaign (my wife's favorite RPG is 2e with all the Skills and Powers books!). The wife and kids all made characters, and we started a dedicated campaign from 1st level.

  The climax, although not end, for that first party is here.

  In the 9 years since we have played a ton of RPGs ranging from the Battletech RPG to HERO 6e to a series of playtest sessions for Rolemaster Unified. Three of my four oldest have DM'ed at least a bit and a common lament from Nick is that we need to become independently wealthy so we have the time to play 8 hours a day 4 to 5 days a week. The oldest is running his own group with friends at a FLGS and the kids even run their own games (usually 4e or 5e) among themselves.

  One thing that I have noticed is - while I know a fair amount of fellow gamers with kids who play, mine seem older. Jack is almost 21, for example.
  So here are some of my observations about my own older second generation players

They Have No Idea How Good They Are
  Outwitting traps, puzzles, etc. in games? Modules made by others? Sometimes they don't notice that there is a trick because it is so intuitive to them. My favorite was from the Hidden Shrine
  I run a 'classic' module every Halloween weekend. Usually heavily modified.
  I was running the 'inverted' version where they start outside. They get to the top.
  [SPOILERS]
  They see the altar to the bat god. The conversation went something like:
  Jack: "Mayincatec altar; bat god. We obviously need to spill blood to open a secret door."
  Sam: "Into the bat mouth. Probably has to be fresh, too."
  Nick: "I bet it bites down."
  Alex: "Obviously it won't let go; use the Bag of Beans."
  Jack: "Certainly."
  [end SPOILERS]
  Here's the thing; I've never used vaguely Aztec stuff before, I think I've hit the party with 4 traps ever, and none of them had read the thing!
  They do this sorta' thing all the damn time, too.
  Now I just assume I have to make everything 25% more deadly and that 2 or 3 of my 3 twists won't work.

Time Sucks Don't Work
  I gave up on giving them timed  quests and then trying to distract them. Oh, I'll give a time limit, but I just know that no amount of 'there might be gold if you pause' works.

They're Opinionated
  This may be genetic.
  Nick? He's an AD&D, no Unearthed Arcana, 3d6 in order and suck it up, kinda' guy. There is no other "real" Dungeons & Dragons. He hates that I use my house rules in my 38 year old campaign and mentions it a lot.
  That's just an example.
  Thing is? Its wonderful. They can logically defend their opinions and aren't unwilling to try new or other things. Their strong opinions lead to, oh, Nick's many great new magic items, or Jack's wildly original campaign settings or Alex's stellar roleplaying at the table, or Sam's keen insight into design.

They Love RPGs
  They love that I have for this crazy pastime? They caught it. It is something we share and that binds our family together.

"Here, Let Me Hand You This Torch"

  So I have been very busy trying to change careers and start a new role for my family.
  We have still been gaming, so I hope to catch up a few things.
  But last week something I have been looking forward to for a long time occurred.

  My oldest son hosted his first purely solo game with his friends where everyone there was a legal adult.
  He has run games before, of course - he has been for a decade or more. And he has done things for friends before, too.

  But seeing everyone there driving themselves, using their own money from their own jobs - that was much cooler than I thought it would be.
  I was busy working (and wasn't invited, anyway) but they all had a good time and will be meeting to play again very soon.

  Huh? Oh, AD&D 1e, of course!

Magic Item of the Week: Amulet of the Confused Mind

From my 12 year old son, another of his creations-

  This item appears as a small but incredibly valuable amulet, usually of platinum, mithril, or other very valuable metal with one flawless rare gem of great worth, that has strange engravings on it.
  When worn, it gives the effect of a Mind Blank spell at all times and the wearer always gets a saving throw against illusions (even if the character has no reason to believe the illusion is not real).   Furthermore If the creature wearing it is psionic, then all psionic strength points are increased 50%.

  However, this blessing comes with a curse: every dayat dawn the wearer must make saving throw vs. poison at a +2 or roll on the random insanity chart. If insanity is indicated, roll a d20; on 1-19 that is the number of days the character remains insane. If the result is a 20, roll again; a 1-19 on this second roll is how long the insanity lasts, but if the second roll is also a 20 the insanity is permanent.

  The character does not need to roll for insanity if he is currently insane.

Law, Chaos, the UK, America, Teutonic Knights, Orcs, and Just What the Heck is Going On With 9th Level Fighters?!

  This one is going to be weird, folks, so strap in.

  The sons and I were talking about gaming (like we do every day) and about some of our other shared passions; history, the Church, and books. We were also talking about my main campaign and how I was always surprised that the handful of guys that made it to 9th level did not get 'all fortressy' but rather angled to take over existing positions within the game

  What I mean is the few characters to hit name level who could then establish a demense all finagled with NPC rulers to take over existing fiefdoms rather than build from scratch.

  Which is, naturally, fine. My oldest speculated that he, himself, might never build beyond the border because there were so many interesting places on the map already; Dwarf Hill, Wyvern Keep, Skull Mountain, the Vanishing Manor, the Tower of the Air, etc. But then we began speculating;

  Why is the assumption that everyone from warriors to priests to mages will strike out into deep wilderness and hack out a corner for themselves?

  I mean, think about it; that is a tremendous amount of expense and risk. Why not do what people in my campaign did and just - get a promotion and retire rather than contend with plague, famine, and orc hordes?
  And why, oh why, would people flock to follow you if, and only if, you did that hugely risky thing?! And not just guys with levels! 0-level men, their wives, their kids! Pilgrims might come and just - settle. I mean, what is going on?

  For a while we speculated that the default D&D world is a lot like the America of the past - vast, largely unexplored, and daring people struck out to make their way.

  [We had the discussion Sunday, I started writing this Monday, and I saw this in my google+ feed Tuesday. Small world!]

  That might be part of it, sure, especially how followers appear and why random encounters sometimes stick around. But does the 'untouched wilderness' really apply to something so Dying Earth as D&D? As the great blog The Hill Cantons points out, based on the wilderness encounter charts the typical AD&D world is littered with ruins of past fortresses, cities, etc. all thrown down to ruin by war or time. And in a manner very similar to North America, D&D wilderness isn't 'untouched', it is full of intelligent being. Berzerkers, cavemen, orcs, hobgoblins, nomads, goblins, kobolds, etc., etc., etc. Heck, you leave patrolled demi-human areas and the 'wilds' are crawling with intelligent creatures. Sure, they're malevolent, but still!
  Plus the AD&D world isn't modeled after 2015 North America or even 1975 Europe, is it? No, the 'place in time' of the real world that seems closest to the default assumptions of AD&D is somewhere between 770 AD and 820 AD; yes, yes, this is speculation, but I can talk about that in another post. Sure,  there are anachronisms for that but that is my guess.
  Now,  modern Europe looks like this;

In 800 Europe looked like this;

Look at the differences! As I point out in my second most popular post ever, in the year 1000 AD the place that is now the Berlin Metropolitan Area, the 6th largest city in Europe, was uninhabited, howling wilderness. 780 AD is 400 years before the first Germans settled on the banks of the Spree!
  In other words, at the time that seems most like AD&D's assumed setting in history Europe was cheek-by-jowl with howling wilderness and hostile forces.
  This means that in the context of the setting and place well behind the curtain of AD&D (Charlemagne's Europe as described in the Matter of France) Europe looked a lot more like 1870's America than most people realize (Although Andy Bartlett did explicitly mention this in the article I linked above). In both places the average person who wanted a better life and who had the courage and resources (or just a lot of courage!) could, and did, set out into the wilderness and start a new life, Heck, that's where little towns like Leipzig and Berlin came from!

  There is also the very mildly controversial topic of the Northern Crusades. In a very high level gloss not meant to dive into the complex, nuanced issues associated with the Northern Crusades, but only to illustrate how it relates to the point at hand over a century of mutual conflict between pagan peoples in North/Northeastern Europe with the Catholic nations to their West and Orthodox nations of their East, where peaceful missionary and diplomatic activity failed, led to a call for a Crusade and a subdual of the pagans by force in the belief that decisive victory would cause the interminable wars to end.
  What followed was some pretty serious and organized expansion and battles from the West. Part of this was having some of the toughest fighters from the West build fortresses in the pagan areas, establish domains, and maintain the peace.
  Sound familiar?
  Heck, sometimes when there were no opportunities to set up in established areas tough, popular leaders would travel even beyond the pagan lands, set of a stronghold, 'subdue the wilderness', and attract people who wanted a better life who could count on the protection of this leader from bandits, etc.
  That had better sound familiar!
  So there is, interesting enough, at least one historical period where something vaguely like Name-level characters starting the 'domain game' did occur, which is pretty cool.

  But I think there is a bit more meta going on, here. In Three Hearts and Three Lions (as well as other books, like Operation Chaos) the author speaks of Law and Chaos as being opposed to each other in a sort of ongoing struggle. But this concept of Anderson's (that seems to have also influenced Dickson in The Dragon and the George) is a lot more complex and nuanced than the shallow, never actually quantified, Law vs. Chaos of Moorcock. Anderson's Law and Chaos (as well as Dickson's  Chance and History) are very much about Virtue/Civilization/Good (Law/History) against Amorality/Wilderness/Evil (Chaos/Chance).
  This was explicitly stated in Three Hearts and Three Lions;

"Holger got the idea that a perpetual struggle went on between primeval forces of Law and Chaos. No, not forces exactly. Modes of existence? A terrestrial reflection of the spiritual conflict between heaven and hell? In any case, humans were the chief agents on earth of Law, though most of them were so only unconsciously and some, witches and warlocks and evildoers, had sold out to Chaos."

  It is also essentially stated that the Church is Law while Chaos is a tool of the Devil. The faerie and their uncaring capriciousness? Chaos, because they could not be trusted.

Despite the desire of contemporary people to think of the faerie/sidhe as fun-loving hippies in folklore they're are much, much more like the Weeping Angels - inhuman, utterly other creatures that if you were lucky will only cast you decades through time away from all you know and love.

  This sort of 'axis' is pretty clear in OD&D where you are Lawful (good) or Chaotic (bad) and it was very much a fantastical experience of fey vs. man.

  But it is more complex and such in AD&D with both the Law/Chaos and Good/Evil axis and the Neutral section. But the core concept remains valid: when a party goes into the (wild, uncivilized) dungeon and destroys monsters the PCs are championing civilization against it's opposite, wildness; when a Lord goes into the wilderness, builds a stronghold, attracts followers, etc. he is championing civilization versus wildness, just on a different level.
  And no, I am avoiding the term 'barbarism' for a reason; woad-painted warriors, nomadic tribesman, etc., can be forces for Law or Chaos, it depends upon if they build or destroy, if they are trustworthy or capricious as a people.

  In my post on how I handle religion in my campaign I mention that the big divide between demi-humans and humanoids is if they are (in general) within the Church or outside of it. But the difference is also 'do those races build civilizations or destroy them?'. Sure, hobgoblins, orcs, etc. are organized, they have skills, etc. But they are wreckers, not creators. In my world they have no cities, they live in what they capture from demi-humans and humans; they have no trade, only plunder; they have slaves who often are worked to death; they have at best war chants but no music, enough writing to issue orders but no literature; etc. Where they go they push back civilization, scrubbing away cities and towns, fences and fields, and leaving behind only brambles, thickets, end desolate ruins.

  So a fighter, wizard, or cleric going into the wilds, building a strong place, attracting followers, and all the rest is, in a very real way, pushing back darkness, ignorance, savagery, and evil. Where there were brambles and thickets he puts fields and orchards; where there was a bare hill he puts a cozy home; where there was darkness there are the lights of a village; where there was isolation and fear he puts friendship and hope.
  No wonder those who want a better life follow.

  So why do 9th level fighters spend all that money and take all that risk? Because they are fighting evil an a new, more important, way.

Play Report: Car Wars Amateur Night

  This Christmas I received a copy of Car Wars (the nice retro-looking box set). Now, the last time I played Car Wars was in the Spring of 1985 and the last time I saw a game was in the Summer of 1990, so I was pretty rusty. My third son and I did a quick 3 sessions of amateur night for great fun. Last night we ran the following:

The Setup
  Killer Karts, the arena, no skills for the drivers as a 'get to know the rules' game.

The Players
  Me
  Son #1 (17 years old)
  Son #3 (15)
  Son #4 (12)

Play
  We each entered from different walls (#3 North, me East, #4 South, #1 West) with everyone but me at 20 mph; I was at 10 mph.
  Early-
  Sons #1 and #3 make a run at each other at low speed (~30 mph) and chew up each other's front armor, using a lot of ammo. Son #4 is approaching their position. I am puttering along at 10 mph, drifting past obstacles.
  Sons #3 and #4 make a few head-on shots at about 30 - 40 mph as they close near the center area of the map. Son #3's front armor and MG iare chewed off and his power plant takes a few hits (no fire). Son #4 has his front armor greatly reduced, but they are passing each other.
  Then Son #3 pulls a 90 degree turn and T-bones son #4 into an observation tower. The impacts destroy Son #3's power plant and lightly injure him and he is stopped. Son #4's left armor is torn off but he is still armed, dangerous, and doing 30 mph. Son #1 is in the northwest corner, I am approaching from the east at 20 mph.
  Son #3 decides to get out of his car and run for a tower.
  Son #4 then pulls off a bootlegger's! Halfway through the maneuver Son #3 starts getting back into his car.  Then Son #4 come to rest facing son #3 (who is dead stopped and unable to move or fire)  at about 3.5". Son #4 fires but misses with a 3!
  Unfortunately, Son #4 is now at a stop 4" dead ahead of me with no cover and his unarmored side facing me. I snap off a burst, roll lucky twice, and Son #4 is dead. Son #3 gets back out of his car and runs for a tower.
  Middle-
  Son #3 is cowering by the entrance to the central tower as I vector in on Son #1 , who is in the SW corner trying to pull off the 'build speed, maintain a good handling, and not hit something' trick. Son #1 realizes I am about to corner him and floors it. I am up to 40 mph but he is at 70 mph. I prepare to keep turning inside and control the center until he is forced to either come at me with his damaged front armor or I can get in behind him.
  As I and Son #1 are heading to the SE part of the map Son #3 begins moving. Soon he is at Son #4's car where he jumps in and begins starting the (still armed, still functioning) killer kart! In the NE corner I almost get Son #1 trapped but he (once again) floors it and my 4 long range shots, all Hail Marys, all miss. About this time Son #3 realizes I am almost in position to rake him along the side with no armor he dives out of the far side of Son #4's car and runs for the tower again. I let him go so i can focus on Son #1.
  Late-
  Pretty soon we are in Turn 25 and Son #1 and I are still lapping the arena. While he has never been in a position to even fire at me with any hope of success, he has been keeping his speed and distance up so I really can't get him, either. Son #3 is still lurking by the tower but has no real hope of starting and using Son #4's kart. It is very late so Son #1 and I agree to call it a draw.

The Chatter
  There was a lot of very happy buzz from the kids over this game (we had some very similar games, but one-on-one, over the previous few days). The best comment was from Son #1 after this game, though,
  "Dad, I expected to play this game every now and then to share a game with you, but this turns out to be the most fun boardgame-type thing we own that wasn't made by Lew Pulsipher by hand."
  Wow.
  The sons all want more than karts so I informed them we will do vehicles up to $10k next time (total cost - Son #3 wants body armor and a personal weapon!). Son#3 (at least) will be designing a new vehicle.

The Questions
  Where can I find a nice download of all the important charts?!
  What other maps, etc., do people recommend?
  And what other rules should I acquire, since this is a hit?

The "We've Finally Had Time to Read the 5e books" Post

  Not a real review, but just the comments of me and my sons as we have read through the books.

The Reviewers
  Me: 47 year old man
  Ja.: 17 year old man
  A: 15 year old half-man
  S.: 14 year old boy
  N.: 12 year old boy

The Good
  Me: "The artwork is really good. The binding is very nice."
  Ja.: "The books certainly are gorgeous."
  A.: "I love the artwork."
  S.: "Very pretty to look at, at least."
  N.: "The art is nice and the last picture in the PHB is a badger, so bonus points."

The Interesting/Positive
  Me: "You don't need multi-classing anymore since you can take various options to various classes to emulate a multi-class, which is interesting."
  Ja.: "Looks like they have cleaned up a number of monsters."
  A.: "Turns out that being almost-dead might actually have longer term effects than just the next long rest."
  S.: "Random dungeon creation charts are back, which is great."
  N.: "The various tables to help with motivations and background might lead to directions you'd never consider without help."

The Weird/Negative
  Me: "...and yet you can multi-class, at least as an option, so let the min/maxing and 14 levels ahead character optimization begin anew!"
  Ja.: "Monks can get an hadouken? What the?"
  A.: "I've already figured out a way to get multiple spells off in a round and I've only had the books 15 minutes."
  S.: "I should be third level after the 3rd or 4th session? So we'd have retired 2, maybe 3, 20th level character parties in just the Blackstone campaign?"
  N.: "They nerfed golems? Who nerfs golems?"

The Harsh
  Me: " Where do the credits acknowledge Runequest, Rolemaster, HackMaster, and Castles & Crusades 'for their contributions to the "new" content of this book'?"
  Ja.: "If you want something for nothing and think character death is a horrible event that should never happen this is the game for you."
  A.: "I don't want to play this, even to playtest."
  S.: ""The DMG reads as 'we're sorry that 4e destroyed your creativity - here's some charts!'"
  N.: "They nerfed badgers? THEY NERFED GIANT BADGERS?! This game is dead to me."

  Full review in a few weeks.

Play Report and Important Points on Designing Low-Level Encounters

  I met my lovely wife in August of 1990 just before I left for the Gulf War. The very first thing we did for fun was play the old WEG Star Wars RPG. I thought she was a long-time veteran of RPGs. it was actually her first RPG session, she had just memorized everything about the Star Wars universe.
  A match made in heaven.
  In the 24+ years since she was played all sorts of games, cutting her teeth and learning how to play from some of the best GMs on the planet. Over the years she's made some truly memorable characters, like:
  - The Mysterious Amazon, a barbarian mistress of the spear who was one of the deadliest fighters in Lew Pulsipher's campaign world.
  - Lady the Abbess Gabrielle, a paladin who dual-classed into cleric and went on to name-level.
  - Stardust, the very best thief in my Blackstone campaign.

  She has a strong preference for fantasy RPGs with AD&D 2e S&P being her flat-out, must have a campaign running, favorite. She prefers to play front-line fighters with cleric/paladin a close second and loathes playing mages.
  And she has never, ever, not once, ever dungeon mastered a single game.

  Until yesterday!

  After a few weeks of prep (it is the Christmas season, so she's busy) she ran a simple encounter to get her feet set.

  To prep the Wife used the 1st level dungeon random encounter tables and followed the random rolls to arm, equip, etc. the villains. She stated very clearly that this was a 'practice round' [i.e., no permanent death, no treasure, no experience].

  She asked that we play only the Big Four (fighter, cleric, magic-user, thief) with no specialization, custom classes, multiclasses, etc.

  The Players and characters:
  Me: Thrain Ironhand, 1st level dwarven fighter with an 18/91 strength and 13 hit points. Bardiche, heavy crossbow, splint mail for protection.
  Ja., the oldest son: Justinian the Great, 1st level human magic-user with Charm Person. A dagger and happy thoughts for protection.
  A., the second oldest son: Legas, 1st level half-elven thief with really good pick pockets. Short sword and a bajillion daggers with leather armor.
  S., the third son: Otto, a 1st level halfling thief who is as silent and stealthy as a shadow. Dagger, club, and leather armor.
  N., the fourth son: Bill, 1st level human cleric with a fiery faith. Heavy mace, warhammer, chain and shield.

  The setup was simple; we are old friends on our way to visit a remote abbey when we learn that a small hamlet had been raided and all the chickens had been stolen. We followed a trail of heavy bootprints and feathers to a small, remote cabin. The thieves crept up to see what was going on as all else hid nearby. The cabin had a single door in front, two heavily shuttered windows in back and two open windows in front. The thieves heard indistinct noises and smelled fried chicken. Otto decided to check the back windows, where he heard Ominous Chanting. Legas decided to look in one of the open windows in front-
  and looked right into the eyes of one of the three hobgoblins eating friend chicken around a table.
  No one was surprised so Legas dove into the room through the window, trying to keep the hobgoblins from blocking the door. Thrain, seeing, this, charged up and smashed open the door.
  Battle began.
  In the first round the hobgoblins (with broad sword, spear, and long sword) all missed Legas and Thrain missed. Justinian held his fire, watching the door to to back of the cabin. Otto tried to stealthily open a back window and failed. Bill stood by to step into melee as soon as Thrain could press in.

  In the second round Thrain slew the broad sword wielder in a single blow and stepped up to engage the spearman. Legas missed and was cut down by the long sword wielder, alive but bleeding out with -1 H.P. Bill rushed in and engaged the long sword user. Otto failed to stealthily open the other shutter.

  In third round Otto smashed open a shutter and saw a human cleric sacrificing a chicken at an altar to Maglubiyet as a hobgoblin with a spear rushed him. Otto threw his club at the cleric, hitting for minimum damage but disrupting the ritual. Otto promptly fled for the front.
  Thrain wounded the spearman, the longsword user wounded Bill, and Bill missed. Justinian threw his dagger at the long sword user and missed.

  Fourth round! Thrain missed. The spearman grazed Thrain. Bill missed. Otto arrived. The longsword wielder hit Bill.
  Bill goes down, slumping over the body of Legas.
  At this point Legas is at   -3 H.P. and Bill is at -2 H.P., also bleeding out.
  Otto steps up to fight the long sword user as Justinian scrambles to retrieve his only dagger from the corner.

  Fifth round. The long sword wielder cuts down Otto, who falls next to Bill and Legas at -2 H.P.
  Its looking like a TPK at this point.
  Justinian flees out the front door as Thrain cuts down the spearman.

  Sixth round. Thrain misses. The long sword wielder hits, bringing Thrain down to 5 H.P.
  Legas is bleeding out at -5 H.P., Bill is bleeding out at -4 H.P., Otto is bleeding out at -3 H.P. The magic-user is ready to sprint away, the long sword wielder is fresh as a daisy, and there are reserves behind the door.

  Seventh round. Thrain hits and kills the long sword wielder. The jerk. Justinian prepares his spell.

  Eighth round. Thrain smashes open the door to the back room where the cleric has just finished strapping on his plate mail. Justinian hits the cleric with Charm Person and the foe blows his save. The last hobgoblin, seeing the devastation and that his master has gone all wobbly-headed, dives out a back window and flees.

  The Wife rules that the charmed cleric saves the lives of the downed members of the party and we wrap up.

  All in all it was a great first session. Varied enemies with different H.P., different weapons, etc. We all loved playing the session even when it was grimmest.

  Notes from the DM on her first session

  1) The storytelling was easy and fun for her, but the mechanics was more involved than she expected.
  2) She realized how important reacting to the actions of the players is and that too much prep might result in trying to force the players down the "right" path.
  3) It is shockingly easy to wipe out a party.

  Notes on Making Low-Level Encounters

  In the post-game discussion I went over my own insights and the things I have been taught by other GMs about low-level encounters:
  1) The thing most likely to kill a low level party is the armor class of the enemy. Hobgoblins are A.C. 5 so the mage needed a 17 to hit them - that's one hit out of 5 attempts. Even Thrain, a dwarf with a  total of +3 to hit (strength and racial bonus) needed a 12, hitting only 45% of the time. Even though 2 of the hobgoblins in the main combat only had 2 H.P. and the 'tough' one only had 6 they were so tough for 1st level n00bs to hit they almost wiped out the party.
  2) The thing second most likely to kill a low level party is the number of attacks facing the party each round. Low level parties have the terrible combination of poor armor classes and low hit points. Each extra attack per round increases the odds that a character goes down that round.
  3) Low Hit Die Monsters are, one-on-one, tougher than low-level characters. A hobgoblin has 1+1 HD for an average of 5.5 H.P. Only as tough as a first level fighter, right?
  Wrong. His to hit roll is the same as a 3rd level fighter. A hobgoblin is, in effect, a 2nd level fighter.
  4) The number of characters in the party != the number of combatants in the party. Yes, we all like to have something to do in battle. But this little skirmish was a perfect illustration of my oft-repeated maxims
    A- Fighters are physical offense.
    B- Magic-users are magical offense.
    C- Clerics are magical and physical defense.
    D- Thieves are scouting  and intelligence.
  These are all very, very true at low levels where players haven't had a chance to 'buffer' their roles with magic to add some flexibility. When the thieves got into front-line battle they died. While the cleric did his best to hold the line, he died. When preparing an encounter for low-level parties calculate 1 melee foe per fighter +1 melee foe per cleric +1 melee foe for everyone else.

  Example: With the party above I would have calculated 1 hobgoblin for Thrain, one for Bill, and Justinian, Otto, and Legas would be just a single additional foe, for a total of 3 hobgoblins.

  Trust me, this will be enough.
  For a tough challenge add a spell foe for each mage and a spell defender for each cleric.

  Same Example: Tossing in a witchdoctor adds spell offense and spell defense.

  These are really rough guidelines and YMMV.

  Have fun!

Magic Item: The Most Marvelous Armillary of Sassendal the Insightful

  This item and its concept was created by my oldest son, J.

  The sage Sassendal was rightly famous for his in-depth knowledge of the celestial bodies and their motions. His insights into their secrets earned him fame and wealth including a great gift from an adventurer - several pots of pigments that, when used to paint an image, made a duplicate of that thing depicted.
  Sassendal had used his wealth to finance the construction of a new armillary, one that he hoped would be not just the most comprehensive but the most accurate. The master craftsmen had completed the globe of Yrth (Sassendal's home world) as well as the bands for the sun, the moons, and the various planets. The sage gave the pigments to the master limner who had been hired to paint the surface of these globes and bands with the coasts, mountains, and rivers of the entire world or the various colors and patterns associated with them all.
  When the limner completed the Yrth globe he was astonished to see a brief flash as it was covered in movement: a film of clouds was visible over the miniature world!
  Equally surprised, Sassendal observed as the limner likewise used the magical paint on the bands of the sun, the planets, and the moons. As each was completed it seemed to flash into movement across its surface. When the last band, that of the sun, was complete it burst into light, glowing as if it were a miniature sun! The The various bands leapt into place around the mounted Yrth globe and began rotating in a perfect simulation of the celestial motion.

  Further, the Yrth globe accurately shows the weather of the entire planet (if it is a bit small).
  Sassendal was able to use the armillary for even more accurate work with the celestial objects and could further warn of typhoons and other great storms, earning him even greater wealth and fame.

  Since Sassendal's death the armillary rests in the Royal Library.

  The Most Marvelous Armillary: This magic item gives the following benefits:
  1) +5/+25% on all skill checks related to stars, moons, the sun, etc., including any sage knowledge checks.
  2) All divinations cast within 10' of the armillary have their duration and range increased by 50%.
  3) Further, all divinations cast within 10' have their accuracy increased by +3/15%,
  4) Anyone observing the armillary for 5 or more minutes can predict the weather for the next 48 hours with 80% accuracy.This check may only be made once a day per person.
  5) The armillary sheds true sunlight in a 60' radius.
  6) by using the various levers at the base a person can adjust the armillary to see the past or future locations of celestial objects allowing the very accurate predictions of solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, etc. The armillary returns to showing the present 1 minutes after such examinations.

  The armillary is 7' tall and weights 1,000 lbs. It makes all saving throws as hard metal at +3.

  Plot Ideas:
  -A Diviner has caught a glimpse of a future catastrophe and wants access tot he armillary to confirm his accuracy, but the royal librarian demands the hide of an ice fox in return for access.
  -Somehow someone has stolen the massive armillary from the king's library! The reward for its return is rather large....
  -The Royal Astronomer summons the party to the library. Advancing the controls to show 2 weeks into the future the armillary suddenly a falling star appears from the wall of the library and moves to the miniature Yrth, striking near the very kingdom you are in! The party has 15 days to think of a way to stop a falling star!

The Spooky Castle

  In my Blackstone campaign (AD&D 2e S&P) the main party is name level and have built a large fortress/cathedral on the border controlling a pass in the mountains/hills. The fortress is made from the local stone (black granite) and sits on a bluff voer looking a river. The name of the massive black fortress that looms over the countryside?
  Skullfang.
  The Lord of the fortress?
  Doomsman the Destroyer.
  Of course, Doomsman is Neutral Good and there is a cathedral within the fortress for a Lawful Good cleric.

  The kids love the idea that every now and then a party of good-aligned NPC adventurers ride into the village and have to be reassured that the local villagers are quite happy, thank you kindly, and need no rescue.

Good, Evil - I'm the Guy with the Gun

My 150th post!
Sorry for the light posting, but (as mentioned often before) this is a very busy time of year for me.

  So a question came up recently from an email correspondent. To wit, how much would Detect Evil and Know Alignment change laws and society?

  Tough question. Let's look at some spells and their descriptions and see what we can figure out.

  Detect Evil seems fairly straightforward. 1e says,

  "This is a spell which discovers emanations of evil, or of good in the case of the reverse spell, from any creature or object. For example, evil alignment or an evilly cursed object will radiate evil, but a hidden trop or an unintelligent viper will not."

  And OSRIC says,

  "This spell allows the cleric to discern emanations of evil (or good, in the case of the spell’s reverse) within the spell’s area of effect, a beam-like pathway. The spell detects evil, not danger, so it will be useless to discover such things as a mindless trap or a poisoned wineglass."

  But! The DMG (1e) (of course) says on page 60,

  "Only a know alignment spell can determine the evil or good a character holds within... ...Characters who are very strongly aligned... and are of... at least 8th [level]... might radiate evil..." [emphasis added]

  It goes on to say,

  [paraphrase] 'Aligned undead, creatures such as Ki-rin, and the like will radiate evil or good; aligned magic items will likewise radiate evil or good'.

  So, combined with the rest of the section, Detect Evil can only detect active evil intent unless the target is really, really bad. A vampire lurking in wait for a victim? Bam! Strong, malignant evil detected! A goblin frying up a mouse fritter? Detect Evil isn't going to pick him up. A goblin waiting in ambush? Faint, lurking evil. Why faint? it's only a wee goblin.

  So Detect Evil isn't 'bad guy radar', but more a 'shambling horror detector' combined with (mentioned earlier) an 'evil intent sensor'.

  So it seems that Detect Evil, while obviously useful, isn't going to change the laws or society very much at all. While very useful for paladins and clerics trying to locate a ghoul or avoid an ambush it has little practical use in day to day life.

  Taking a little detour, we need to also look at the Fourth level spell Detect Lie. What I find fascinating here is that the existence of this spell implies, strongly, that Detect Evil can't detect when you are lying! Since the spell description in the DMG on Detect Lie mentions that the spell can not detect 'evasions' but only direct lies and the level of the spell is very high this implies that lies are evil but subtle enough to the point a specific spell is needed and, even then, only direct falsehoods can be detected.
  It seems obvious that Detect Lie would have a huge impact on the law: interrogations could, in the hands of skilled interrogator with this spell, quickly identify lies (if not necessarily revealing the truth!) But, of course, you need a 7th level+ cleric (or an 8th+ level religious brother) and a typical medieval kingdom 1s going to have, oh, at most five people who can cast the spell, and all of them are going to be rather prominent members of the community, i.e., either very busy, very expensive, or both. And they would have to give up access to spells like Exorcise to learn Detect Lie instead. Oh, and getting two different people to cast it to confirm each other might be effectively impossible, so it might boil down to a mere claim by the caster!
  So while Detect Lie might make a big difference in very important matters (the death of a king, the theft of an artifact, etc.) it will be very unlikely to be available for routine work.
  So - very little impact on laws or society.

  Finally, we are at Know Alignment which, the rules say,

  "...enables the cleric to exactly read the aura of a person - human, semi-human, or non-human. This will reveal the exact alignment of the person. Up to 10 persons can be examined with this spell."

  "This will reveal the exact alignment..." That is very, very clear, isn't it? There are a fair bit more people who can cast Know Alignment - at least 20 and, if you are using Religious Brothers and counting higher level casters, more like 100! So a fair number of people are going to be able to determine if you are a bad guy or not.
  Now, I have heard many a person say that casting Know Alignment on MPCs is 'rude', or 'improper', or 'forbidden', but I was never sure where this came from. The 1e DMG says on page 35,

  "...it is considered poor manners to enspell [a potential henchman] in any way (except possibly in the case of Know Alignment..."

  So it seems obvious that senior officers, etc. should expect to have their alignment checked at least at the time of employment. Indeed, I personally assume any spellcaster or group that can  cast spells like Know Alignment, Detect Charm, Detect Curse, etc. will cast them on their henchmen and hirelings from time to time.

  This will change society and the law, at least a little. It will be much, much more difficult to insert a mole into an organization, replace someone with a doppleganger, etc. if routine use of these divinations is a part of your campaign.
  Although it explains a lot about the use of assassins to spy from the 1e DMG! With their use of alignment tongues, disguises, etc. I have always assumed that the spying charts is also the chance the assassin successfully dodges these spells.
  This also makes items like Rings of Mind Shielding and Amulets of Proof vs Etc., Etc. more valuable.
  So at first glance it seems obvious that Know Alignment should have a huge impact on your campaign world.
  My next article will explain why it won't!

Play Report - The Dungeon of the Really Crazy Wizard-Type Guy

  A rarity for DStP: a play report from me!
  For his birthday my 3rd son, S., asked to start his own campaign.
  Woot! A new campaign where I get to play! S. is very imaginative, very creative, and runs a good game, so a campaign will rock.
  The system?
  HackMaster 4th.
  Woot!
  So characters were created by me and the other three 'Older Brothers' and we played this week.

  The Party
  Me - Grandolph Greywand. Human magic-user. The only child of two wizards who were each celebrity magic-user/adventurers, He was raised in wealth, sent to the finest schools, and graduated top of his class from the most elite magic academy in the land. He is highly intelligent, highly educated, rich, charming, suave, well dressed - and a complete jackass. The only thing larger than his ego is his sense of entitlement.
  Lawful Evil.
  Has a porter ('carrying things is for the poor') and a personal valet (his first valet recently retired after 20 years of service. Grandolph is 21).
  Began with a ton of excess honor.
  Joined the party because he is certain that any adventuring party will get him fame to exceed that of his parents because he is in it!

  N. - Gary, son of Gary of the house of Gary. Human-ish fighter. The son of a pfalszgraf of a realm in the Forest of Forever, his parents were murdered by his evil uncle, Bob the wizard. Bob had Gary sent to an orphanage run by zealots of the Torture God. As a result of the rather rigorous training of the orphanage Gary is phenomenally strong, incredibly tough, and absolutely unhinged. In addition to being an alcoholic (he turned to the bottle for solace at age 6) he is also a glutton. He firmly believes that rightful heir of the entire world.
  Terribly maladjusted, he often confuses people with his words such as,
  "Innkeeper! Dinner was delicious, but where are the branding irons? I am ready for dessert."
  or
  "A day like today makes me grateful for the monks who used to beat me with sticks for breathing too often."
  Neutral Evil. 16 years old.
  Uses a two-hander. Liberally.
  Began honorable (somehow).
  Leader of the party and dedicated to claiming his rightful inheritance (see above).

  J. - Lewis von Lübeck. Human zealot of the god of Competition and Games. Led a particularly average life (small town, two nice parents, 1.4 siblings, etc.) until the last week of seminary when his master had a divine vision that he was destined to serve Gary, son of Gary of the house of Gary. Ever obedient, Lewis complied.
  Now having served Gary for 4 weeks Lewis suffers from the 'Little Faith' flaw.
 Lawful Neutral.
  A skilled pugilist, Lewis enjoys a good round of fisticuffs.
  Began honorable.
  His god told him to join the party.

  A. - Willie. Dwarven fighter/thief. His parents were life-long petty criminals. When Willie was 12 they were unjustly executed for the (only) crime they didn't commit. He was taken in by a dwarf who explained he was a master thief and would train Willie to get his revenge.
  Unfortunately, his mentor was actually a crazy, drunk beggar who messed up Willie's development as a thief.
  The only things Willie has of his parents is their seabed-hugging social status and a 500 g.p. debt to the mob.
  Neutral Evil.
  Uses daggers and his fists.
  Began dishonorable.
  He is so desperate to pay off the mob he would join any party. he is so incompetent no sane party would have him.

  The First Session - Part I
  Grandolph met Gary, Lewis, and Willie at the Tavern of Contrived Meetings and soon decided they would follow a set of rumors to the Dungeon of the Really Crazy Wizard-Type Guy. The party, surprisingly flush, set out on horseback (with Grandolph's hirelings walking) towards the lost dungeon. As the party drew close they were ambushed by a large troop of baboons.
  Grandolph immediately cast a Fireball, Sidewinder Factor I towards the largest collection of the simian ruffians, causing a number of them to flee and igniting the tinderbox-dry forest.
  Gary immediately charged a group of them, raving about 'baboon night at the orphanage' and how he hoped he could remember all the cooking fire stories for the 'after-rending cookout'. Willie was soon attacked by a small knot of baboons and Lewis closed with the baboon leader.
  Gary was slicing his was through baboons like a hot knife through monkeys, Willie was struggling a bit, and Grandolph was ordering his hirelings to guard his flanks. Lewis met the chief baboon and squared off in a boxer's stance - to have the baboon chief do the same! In moments the two were engaged in a ferocious display of the sweet science.
  The fighting continued as the forest began to turn into an inferno; Gary was mowing through baboons, Willie was doing a bit better, Lewis and the baboon chief were exchanging jabs and Grandolph was exhorting his porter to stop whining as the baboons chewed on him. In a few moments only a handful of the baboons were left; Willie felled the last of his foes with a well-placed groin punch followed by a coup de grace; Gary was giggling about something to himself as he wiped his two hander, and Lewis was still trading blows with the baboon leader.
  Finally, bored and wishing his tea Grandolph rode up and cracked open the baboon leader's skull with his quarterstaff and the party rode on. Grandolph apologized for disrupting Lewis' duel, docked his porter 3 days of pay for being unable to carry things, and waited for his valet to finish tea.

  More soon!

Seaward Campaign - Brigid's Adventure Log

Real time: July 5-6, 2014


Je. played Brigid, a human Barbarian
Ja. played Seamus, a human Druid
A. played Starkiller, a half elf Fighter/cleric/magic user
S. played Clarence, a half elf "fighter-thief"/assassin
N. played Akira, a human monk


Backstory:
I am Brigid, born of the sept O'Mara, clan Branaugh. I was born under a summer moon, some 18
years ago. My family has a proud history with our clan, one of the strongest on Isle Eiru. I have such
fond memories of roaming the hills and valleys of my beautiful homeland, first learning to spar and
fight by playing games with my ten siblings and countless cousins. And then the dark times came
when I was but 9 years old. A blight came upon the land, and our previously fertile hills were
practically barren for too many years. It hit our family's homestead particularly hard, and the wicked
pains of hunger are never far from my memory. My body grew taller and taller as I approached
adulthood, with only the strength born of my happy childhood sustaining me during these lean years.
When I reached the age of full womanhood, my world fell apart even further. A rival clansmen
attempted to dishonor me, and quite frankly, I beat him to the pulp he deserved. Upon discovery of his
injuries, his father, head of clan Donegal, approached my family and offered a terrible choice - I may
marry his son, the rotting lecherous bastard, and save his clan's honor, or he would be forced to declare
conflict with our clan. Weakened by the famine, I could not see my family succeeding against this
challenge, and neither could my poor father. So, I left. Banishment would save my family and also
keep me from wedding the vile son. I am tall and strong, I knew I could make my own way. I will
work hard, further hone my fighting skills, and earn enough gold to restore my family to glory. My
need for revenge upon the forces of evil that brought famine upon our land, and upon the dreadful clan
Donegal, drive me. My faith teaches me that revenge is for God alone, but sometimes I can't resist the
rage I feel deep down inside...


I found passage on a ship bound south for a city called Seaward. I worked the sails for my passage.
The crew seemed somewhat frightened of me after I put down the first man who tried to dishonor me,
but they couldn't deny my hard work and assistance with fighting off pirates, so they left me alone for
the rest of our journey. Once in Seaward, I found work in the city as a sign painter (my fascination
with art as a child actually was valuable, though my cousins swore I was wasting my time). It wasn't
long though before the ugliness and stench of the city got the best of me, and I set out for the
countryside. I hear that the Dwarvenlands might remind me of home, which I miss so very much. I
made my way through various small villages, offering my services at the small taverns and inns,
reprinting signs and drawing portraits in exchange for my food and board. I eventually came to the
town of Old Bridge and found plentiful work, and I knew I needed to rest there for awhile. I am
fearfully lonely.


At the inn where I was staying, I met an interesting fellow who goes by the name of Starkiller. A half
elf, he has been kind to me, and has told me of adventures he has had with a few friends, fighting evil
and coming to the defense of weaker villagers. This appeals to me, I am running out of places to draw
new signs, and I am thus far only making my own way, not acquiring gold and treasure to help my
family. I am, quite frankly, pestering him daily, asking to join him and his friends on their next
adventure. I wonder if I should warn them of the rages that come upon me at times, but I don't want
to scare them off, I must prove how helpful I can be, first. I guess the time for me to prove that is
now, as he has finally come to tell me of a new request for help they have received. Something about a
legend of a town who fears the new moon, and people disappearing. I am intrigued.


Day 1:
I have met Starkiller's friends. One of them, Clarence, is overly fond of drink, and I am somewhat
suspicious of him. Seamus seems like a stand-up guy, and Akira is an interesting kind of fighter. They have told me more about the legend, and the new troubles in the village. Seems that 25 years ago or
so, near the village of Richacre, the local lord, named Sir Tremare, built a great guard tower, so he
could watch over the briars on the border. There was a large gargoyle on the top. About a year later,
he and his men all vanished from the tower. Interestingly enough, the gargoyle disappeared, too. After
that, every new moon, one to three people would go missing. The tales tell that the creature that took
them away was said to look like a gargoyle. Several times men said they had killed it, only to find that
the next morning, its body had disappeared, and at the next full moon, people would vanish again.
After about a year and a half, the attacks simply ended. Well, about two months ago, it seems like the
attacks started again. The village sent out word, asking for assistance. Supposedly another adventuring
party arrived to help, but then they disappeared, too. Seamus has heard of the village asking again for
help, and is organizing his friends to set out. I am joining them, and they were kind enough - maybe
mercenary enough? - to loan me money to buy a horse. I am wary of owing money to that Clarence
guy, but hopefully my gamble will pay off. I must show them my worth and try to keep the rage at bay.
Hopefully I can join them on many more adventures and save money for my family. But, first things
first, we are off to the village of Richacre. As we set out, it is cloudy, misting, and very, very hot. How
I miss the cool breezes of home!


Later that evening...
We passed the village of Ham on Wye around noon, then stopped in Stowanger to eat lunch at the
Tankard and Bowl tavern - a good bowl of stew and some beer, very refreshing. We are really on the
border here, you can practically see the edge of civilization. As we set out, we see a sign and are
headed toward Richacre. We arrived late that afternoon, to find a village heavily fortified, with ditches,
earthen ramparts, and palisades. We entered the open gates, and found twelve buildings inside,
including ten family homes. Towards the forest in back, there was a lovely grove of pecan and walnut
trees.


After we entered the gates, we spoke with Tardyl, the head of the village, and the gatekeeper. Both of
them indicated that the last group that came to help was very shifty, and they weren't all that surprised
that they had disappeared. We spoke with them both about the legends, and Tardyl insisted that
several people actually killed the gargoyle, but the body always disappeared! Now, more people are
vanishing. There is no pattern to the targets, and way back when it first started, people as far away as
Stowanger and Ham on Wye. Many people were scared away, and there are only about 50 people left in this village. They offer us a place to stay in a local house inside the walls, and we all note that there is a full moon in two nights, so we should have time to investigate.


And then, Seamus began talking with a crow! He tells us that the crow said that something that smells
funny flies in and out of the tower, there were humans living in the tower 3-4 weeks ago, and there was
a big monster, a Drake, that they rode around. There is also, apparently, something suspicious in the
forest, and something is calling all the crows south for the battles to come. There is definitely evil
afoot, and I can only hope to contribute to its banishment.


Day 2
We got a good nights sleep and awoke this morning to a dreary, misty day, with a fierce north wind, but
it is surprisingly hot. We approached the tower, and saw lots of tracks going between the tower and a
nearby hill. It is a rather foreboding tower, made of dark grey granite, certainly a guard tower and not
a home. There seems to be a place on the south east corner where the old gargoyle probably was at one
point.


My companions and I decided that we should check out the hill before approaching the tower, and
circled around to try to explore he hill without being seen by the tower. I noticed a strange thing, the
tops of the pine trees all around the hill are scorched, and behind the trees there is a cave. Akira
snuck into the cave and found a 24 foot long red dragon! It was chained to the wall, sitting on a pile of
copper and silver. Thankfully, Akira was unseen! Starkiller detected evil, and tells is it is massively
evil, plotting revenge, and very, very annoyed.

We decided to ignore the dragon for now, since he seems securely chained, and see what we have to
deal with in the tower.


Later that day...
We got to the tower safely, and Akira opened the grate in front of a door and saw two humans with
crossbows, grilling meat over a brazier. Akira knocked down the door and we attack! Inside, I remind
myself to not give in to the rage, and I successfully killed one of the bad guys, and my companions
killed the other. Once inside the tower, we opened a door to a spiral staircase, and decided to go down
first. We found a store room with a well and a secret door. The secret door opens onto a dusty, 40'
long hallway with a door at the end.


We decided to clear out the tower before exploring the evil we detect in the secret hall - best to know
what we are dealing with.


The cellar and the first floor remained as they were before we entered the secret tunnel. We climbed
the stairs to the second floor, and I opened the door just a crack and peeked in. I saw four men, and
rushed in (keep the rage at bay!) I killed a guy, and then another. Starkiller kills another, and
Clarence got the final blow against another. As we are searching the room, a man burst into the room
bearing a two handed sword. Clarence recognizes him as Merle, stupid but strong. How does Clarence
know these bad guys? I definitely don't trust him!


Seamus cast a fairy fire spell on Merle, he glowed with an outlined contrast, which should have made it
easier to hit him. Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, my inexperience shines through, to my shame.
I can't seem to hit anything, and I am no help at all to my companions. Maybe my inner fights against
my rage are distracting me? My companions are fierce fighters, however. Akira punched and stuns
him. Suddenly, a woman peeked in the doorway and touched Merle, healing him. Starkiller threw a
dart at the woman. Merle attacked Akira and knocked him unconscious, but Starkiller healed him and
kept him on his feet. Behind us, a thief type appeared in the window and started throwing daggers.
Meanwhile, Merle started being affected by the heating metal of his armor, thanks to a spell cast by
Seamus. Merle is eventually killed by the heated metal, and I got myself together and killed the
woman in the hallway. As we were healing each other and getting our bearings after the battle, we
noticed a guy fall outside the window, in an oddly slow, light way. I pulled out my longbow and shot
him dead as he tried to run away.


We cleared out the rest of the tower, which was empty. From the top of the tower we could see a long
way, we even saw smoke in the distance by where Skull Mountain must be. Clarence found a spell
book, a book on combat and tactics, and a book on the history of Seaward on a bookshelf.


We went outside the tower and raided the body of the man I killed running away, and got a ring and a
key. He was running toward the dragon, perhaps it is the key to his chains?


We went back inside to explore the hallway behind the secret door in the basement. We went through
the door at the end of the hallway and found a room. It was littered with old skeletons covering the
floor, and there were a couple fresher bodies, plus a pile of coins and a large shield. We noticed two
secret doors, and I opened one of them. I found the gargoyle! I rushed in to attack him, and once
again, I just totally failed. Oh, my dreams of fighting evil to avenge my family, how can I fail now??
The gargoyle attacked me and injured me, which shook me out of my inept stupor, and I finally killed
the gargoyle. We opened the other secret door and found a large room with a big seal on the floor and
glowing moss on the floors and walls. We could sense evil in the corner, and nearby, but decided that
we should rest and heal up before exploring further.


Day 3 We went back down to the large room behind the secret door to check out the lead-lined seal on the
floor in that one room. We detected brooding evil, and decided (wisely, I believe) not to open it. We
need to deal with dragon, and there was great debate over what to do. We decided to take our loot
(including the head of the gargoyle thing, to prove we have actually killed it) to the village before we
deal with the dragon. In the village, we contacted the local hedge wizard to identify our possibly
magical loot. We discovered that we have oil of etherealness, so we decided to use that to kill the
dragon. Clarence rubbed the oil will over himself and then we all got ready in case he needed our
help. Clarence entered the dragon's cave ethereally and when the oil wore off, he was able to surprise
the dragon, attacking the dragon with his sword and killing him with a well placed blow. We gathered
his rather paltry loot and carted it out with a mule train, including the dragon hide (we used the
magical sword we found and Akira's leather working skills to preserve it whole!)


My first adventure. I am ashamed of how often I missed my attacks, but I did kill several bad guys,
and managed to keep the rage at bay, so maybe my companions will try to keep me around?


(from the DM, Experience Points: 1600 - plus 500 extra for Clarence)


Treasure:
9000 cp. 20,000 sp. 3,000 GP


Potion of treasure finding
Oil of etherealness (used)
Scroll (illusion spell, phantom armor)
Potion of extra healing
Potion of invisibility
Potion of Orc control
Potion of heroism
+1 leather armor
+1 short sword
Ring of Feather Fall

Magic Item of the Week - Figurine of Wondrous Power: the Jade Dolphins.

  Another great item from my 11 year old son presented just as he wrote it.

  This small object appears as a jade statuette of a dolphin, if thrown onto the the surface of water it has the following different settings(each with a different command word):
  The pack dolphin: This setting(18 h.p. a.c.5. 2 1d4 damage.) has the special property of having the same carrying capacity as a draft horse, it is however never slowed down by encumbrance. Everything carried by the pack dolphin is protected from water and gets a +4 on all saving throws.
  The riding dolphin: This setting(h.p. 24, a.c.3,2d4+1 damage.) is large enough to carry a human of maximum size as a rider, it has triple normal dolphin swim speed(90".). It's rider is affected as if he or she were in the area of a airy water spell, it's rider's weight does not count for encumbrance when used as a mount.
  The killer dolphin: This setting(h.p.32.a.c.2,damage 3d6.) is used solely for combat, it does double damage when charging and takes half damage from cold and lightning.
  Each setting can be used once a week for up to 24 hours at a time. If the dolphin is dropped to 0 or lower h.p. the statuette lies unusable for a week. After 9 total uses the figurine becomes inert.

Inspired by Other Bloggers - Back in the Day and Now

  Last night I saw an interesting article in my Google+ feed - this fun bit. Inspired, I will do the same and related my experiences.

  I started D&D in '77 on March 15th. Yes, I remember the specific day because there was a Shakespeare play going on at the time. The guy running it was a college freshman at Ball State and was using the white box rules for a game with his girlfriend, some high school kids - and me. I am forever grateful to the two girls who insisted I be able allowed to play even though I was 9.
  I remember setting as fairly important; the DM used French to indicate when we were speaking to traders from other lands and his girlfriend used German to represent the barbarians from the North. I was soon with a group of middle schoolers with a high school age DM and he also had a fairly detailed setting with the politics between the elves and the dwarves really setting the tone.
  By the end of the year I had Traveller, the Holmes basic set, and Chivalry & Sorcery. C&S has a huge impact on me because it was very focused on setting and on background. And Traveller added skills! I loved the snap and crunch of Traveller with all the math, the ship design, etc. And I liked the complexity of C&S. But I played D&D the most, with a bullet.
  In '78 I started working on a setting for my own D&D campaign, a port city called Seaward. Originally it was a crude map of a small city, a nearby set of smugglers' caves, and where the wizard's tower was. My players seemed to love the background and settings. The style of play for us was similar to this;

-Make characters (3d6 in order, roll 3 sets and pick the one you like)
-Make the new character part of the setting with backstory
-Have fun.

  Character death was fairly common.

  Around 1980 I noticed that the modules I had gotten had really changed the map - figuring out where to put them, how they fit into the world, etc. really spread out the map and added a lot of depth. My house rules were both well begun and under constant revision. I was actively trying to figure out how to get Traveller-style rules in my D&D setting when three things happened in quick succession; I moved, I received the World of Greyhawk folio as a gift; and I received Rolemaster as a gift.
  The impact of Rolemaster on how I thought about gaming was huge, bigger than C&S had been. The Greyhawk folio made me look at the Seaward setting from a 'top down' perspective; my new set of players were very, very strong on the rules without being rules lawyers.
  Before you know it I was running two campaigns; one in Greyhawk where it was official modules and Seaward where it was original stuff. This was also the time of my first 'reboot' of Seaward - much like Crisis on Infinite Earths I fixed continuity errors and cleaned up the maps and storylines. Another interesting development was how the players wanted to move characters between the two campaigns. We also all used what we called 'strict time'; sometimes characters were unavailable so we began having henchmen go as adventurers when their boss was out - the beginnings of what I call jazz band adventuring although not nearly as sophisticated as it became later.
  During this time;
-setting was still very important as a tool for adding depth to the game
-a lot of my players had henchmen as quasi-substitute characters
-When character death was a little less common character 'so messed up he is out for months' was more common than ever

  After joining the army I was all over the map in more ways than one. My looooong training schools allowed me to participate in a very, very fun game of Champions and play in a campaign where the GM had only ever played Rolemaster, knew every rule inside and out, and was running in a homebrew setting. Those two GMs taught me a great deal about being prepared, session prep, plotline development, and collaborating with the players. I was also playing a fair amount of D&D including a number of very memorable 'one shots' with someone who went on to win several prestigious awards as a movie producer.
  Then I was lucky enough to join Lew Pulsipher's D&D group. As I have mentioned before, Lew had already solidified what I call 'jazz band adventuring' and his setting, Tonilda, was a revelation in its simplicity. Most importantly, he is a full-blown game theorist and we often had long discussion about theory and did a fair amount of experimentation.
  Of course, 2e cam out shortly thereafter and I did my second reboot of Tonilda to incorporate a lot of the things I had learned.
  During this time;
-setting settled in as what I still consider it to be to this day - a framework for plot development that allows various stories, characters, etc. to interact so that there is a feeling of verisimilitude to the game and more depth for all involved
-I realized that the balance between complexity and simplicity should vary and that the difference in 'feel' between systems is often about this balance

  I wanted to insert a little note, here, about my experiences as a gamer.
  I feel like I am a bit unusual as a gamer - I have been to two RPG conventions ever and while I enjoyed them well enough I doubt that I will ever be to many more. I have never, ever had any experience with being bullied, etc., about gaming. I had motorcycle racers and football players in my games from day one and a small majority of all of my players were special forces, airborne, or rangers. With a few exceptions I have always had girls or women in my gaming groups. I sometimes feel that this is anomalous since a fair number of my peers talk about their experience as very different than this.

  Storytelling/White Wolf/WoD came along just as I was transitioning from the army to civilian life. I have mentioned other places that I largely enjoyed WoD as a concept but I did not ever run it and was not a fan after playing it. Story and setting had been a part of my campaigns from the beginning but were always secondary to adventure and fun.

  I did run 3e for a number of years and used Seaward (not the main campaign area) for those games. While there are certainly great elements in 3e the complexity level was a bit too high for my players and I to enjoy it as much as earlier versions. We kept largely the same attitude; fun and adventure is first, story and setting add to fun and adventure, rules need to be balanced between simple and complex. My 3e campaign died a neglectful death since my players were always asking to play something else.

  I experimented pretty heavily in this time with Rolemaster, Fantasy Hero, new C&S, etc. but always kept coming back to 1e and 2e. I was an eager fan of HackMaster 4th and really enjoyed it. My wife is a huge fan of AD&D 2nd edition Skills and Powers so I eventually created a new campaign world, Blackstone, to run a dedicated 2e S&P campaign.

  Blackstone was the primary campaign for a few years while Seaward lurked about. Eventually my kids wanted to play more 1e and Seaward was back out in full. We still keep story and setting in support of adventuring and fun, as the kids age we use jazz band adventuring more and more, and we like the level of complexity between 1e and 2e S&P.

  4e went by pretty fast and it was some time sbefore I got the books - my sons play it as a tactical warfare simulator. I heard of and acquired OSRIC, S&W, etc. all pretty early and enjoy them a great deal.

  I currently run a 1e campaign (Seaward), a 2e S&P campaign (Blackstone), and a Champions campaign (Champions of Atlanta). I still wish I could figure out how to play Rolemaster more. I still wish I played as much as I GM.

  What are your histories like?

Magic Item of the Week - Familiar's Hat

  The debate around my house on familiars is never-ending. Yes, we all admit they are useful. Yes, they are certainly cool. No, no one has one.
  [That is not quite true; two characters have special familiars from a specific spell - I should post that and the unique familiars some day. Or they are in the book Mage Guild already. Very, very broad hint.]
  Of course, we aren't alone. While those extra hit points and such are really handy at 1st the idea of taking all those penalties when your toad get's hit with a Fireball is terrifying. WE have a lot of ideas floating around, like; having spell-like rituals that can be researched so that familiars get tougher at 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, etc. levels; higher level variants of Find Familiar that get you tougher familiars or make sure you get a special one; or making magic items for familiars.
  That last one led my two oldest sons to think up the Familiar's Hat;

  The Familiar's Hat is usually in the style of a capuchon, hennin, or even capirote but may also resemble a kalpak, bashlyk, phrygian cap, dhaka topi, or even a busby or akubra. The hat may be simple or fancy, battered or crisp, plain or embroidered and bejeweled.
  Regardless of appearance all Familiar's Hats share the trait of containing an extra-dimensional space meant as a form of dwelling and protection for familiars.
  When first found the Familiar's Hat will typically be inactive; the extra-dimensional space will be inchoate and unformed. But when touched by the owner and his familiar at the same time the Familiar's Hat will both assume a specific 'interior' form and both the familiar and owner will be mystically aware of its powers.
  Once activated the familiar may enter the hat in one of two ways; they may open a magical 'door' and enter normally or they may be whisked into the hat via a very limited form of teleportation.
  When entering normally the familiar opens what appears to be a small, hinged door that appears on the side of the hat. This takes a total of 4 segments and allows the familiar to take things into and out of the extra-dimensional space. The familiar can open the door at any time and may move back at forth at will.
  To be whisked into the Hat the familiar must be on or within arm's reach of the owner and the owner must be wearing the hat. The teleportation can be triggered by thought at any time the familiar is not surprised and takes only a segment. The experience of being whisked inside is disorienting and leaves the familiar stunned and disoriented, unable to perform any action for 19 full segments.
  When inside the Hat the familiar may still communicate with the owner so long as the owner is wearing the hat. The familiar may see, hear, and communicate otherwise by opening one of 4 'windows', one each to the front, rear, and each side. When opened these windows appear on the surface of the hat and a brief glimpse of the interior and the familiar may be seen. Nothing may be passed through these windows but light and conversation; items and spells (including such things as Charm) are blocked. While inside the Hat the familiar may be harmed by no outside force.
  As mentioned earlier the interior of the hat is configured when activated and is based upon the type of familiar as well as the personalities of the familiar and owner. A toad will have a (very) small, moist glade, a raven an open area with a perch, a cat a cozy little den with a few ledges, etc. At the extreme ends an imp or quasit will have a tiny chapel of evil with a miniature altar and a brownie will have a snug miniature cottage complete with a fireplace. The owner may place nothing into the Hat directly, all will have to be taken in with the familiar directly or indirectly; the toad may be accompanied by insect and such, 'stocking up' the Hat with food while the brownie may take in tiny furniture, firewood, etc. The Hat cannot be used as another extra-dimensional storage space for loot, etc., unless it is the property of the familiar.
  The hat will always have an encumbrance of 3 lbs. It makes all saving throws as the best possible material and at +3. If the Hat fails a saving throw it is destroyed and, if inside, the familiar is immediately ejected; in this case the familiar is unharmed but is stunned for 3 rounds.

Play Report - Three First-Time Players

  As I mentioned earlier yesterday evening I hosted a family of friends. The dad, D., had played 1e in high school and college but had no group when he moved for his first job 20 years ago. He came over with thee of his kids: son M. (14), daughter T., 12, and daughter C., 9. My sons J., A., S., and N. all assisted in setup and character creations.
  We started by just talking about RPGs in general over snacks and lemonade. The kids were eager, having heard tales from the table from their father all week. M. is a Full Metal Alchemist fan and had some general ideas about character motivation; T. is an artist and had character concept sketches; C. was just ready to have fun.
  We moved on and J. rolled up a character as a demo; he rolled Str 17 Int 11 Wis 9 Dex 11 Con 14 Cha 9 - a classic 3d6 in order fighter. We took our time and explained hit points, armor class, weapon proficiencies, etc. as we went. Total time to roll up, equip, and discuss creation was about 25 minutes. Then J., A., S., and N. helped all four of the visitors make characters. We ended up with:
  C. - human magic-user with 1 h.p. and A.C. 10
  T. - elven fighter/magic-user with 5 h.p. and A.C. 10
  M. - human thief with h.p. 2 and A.C. 5/8
  D. - human illusionist with h.p. 4 and A.C. 8/10
         Yup, a 3d6 in order illusionist.
  and J. with his new fighter, u.p. 8, A.C. 5

  With the heavy skew towards casters I was really glad J. had done a straight fighter.
  I then took them aside in ones and twos and explained how some of them knew each other ["J., you and T. have the same swordmaster trainer; C., you and T. have the same wizard mentor; T., and C. you have met D. who is mentored by your mentor's husband; J., you and M. have done some 'little jobs' for the town guard captain every now and then", etc.]
  Once that little web of acquaintance was established the town guard captain dropped a story on J. about how a small village had a reward for people willing to figure out some missing people. In a few moments the web of acquaintances had resulted in a team on its way tot he village of Stowanger.

  Note: Normally I give each character a sheet of things they know, rumors they have heard, secrets they are keeping, and people they know at the end of character creation, but I also usually spend a fair amount of time with each person over each character. Since this was a 'training session' I abbreviated this a lot! Still, I made sure they didn't 'all just meet in an inn'. I also slipped the human magic-user a tube of salve from her grandmother.

  Note: My son, J., wrote a list of 'basic adventuring equipment for 10 g.p.' and 'basic riding horse package for 45 g.p.' and we printed this out - a great help for newbies!

  Off they went on the River Road, eventually stopping in the (soon to be) famous Sad Wolf Tavern in Ham-on-Wye. After spending the night they set out south to the sleepy village of Stowanger and its only public building, the Church of St. Aledhel of the Elves.  They asked good questions, spoke to the locals, and eventually figured out that the people going missing had all recently come into money. They asked if anyone had recently come into money and were soon camped in the Brownside family barn, watching their house.

  The next day it rained all day and night. At the end of first night watch the fighter/magic-user spotted movement in the rain-soaked night. Like many first-time players she almost didn't think to wake anyone else up before going out, alone, to investigate. She remembered, though, and the group soon identified the shapes as kobolds trying to pry open a shutter of the house. The party developed a fairly interesting plan of the magic-user casting Dancing Lights as a ghostly figure appearing amidst the main group of kobolds and then the party attempting to capture one of the isolated kobolds on lookout.

  The sudden appearance of the spell effect startled the kobolds enough that the main group fled (pretty badly failed morale check) and the party did try to capture a kobold, ending up with a dead one and one at -3 but stable.
  No cleric, so no way to get the wounded kobold to interrogation ready in decent time.
  The party then quizzed Farmer Brownside about where the kobolds might be; he eventually mentioned the 'haunted mill'. The party set off for this building after using the salve to heal a hit point or two and getting some sleep.

  Note: I was using Syrinscape with a bluetooth speaker set in the middle of the table- the players, new and experienced alike, loved the weather and battle noises; they said it added a lot and kept the in-game conditions in their mind.

  The old mill is a 30' deep, 40' wide 2 storey structure with no windows on the first floor (but a broken old door hangs from from the only entrance, on the ground floor. There are windows all around the second floor.
  The thief decided to climb up to a second floor window and scout - one failed climb walls check later and the entire party is creeping up to the front door and another use of the salve is gone.
  The ground floor of the mill has the broken machinery of the milling process and a number of areas for stacking grain sacks - 10' x 10' stalls with 2' high walls. The floor is covered in dried leaves, rotted old burlap bags (empty), and such debirs and their is a staircase to the second floor in the corner.
  The thief decides to scout ahead and promptly steps into a bear trap hidden under the debris. The noise prompts 6 kobolds to rise from hiding in the stalls and unleash a storm of javelins! My dice hate me and they all missed.

  Note: The three bear traps are in very specific places on the map - don't walk there, no trap. This is the 11th time I have run the old mill for new players. The thief was the first to go in every time; the thief failed to search for traps every time; the thief hit one of the three hidden bear traps every time.

  The prepared illusionist immediately cast Darkness, covering half the first floor and shielding the party from 1/2 the ambushers. J., and T. immediately close with the other kobolds. In the next three rounds of combat the party deals with 4 of the 6 kobolds they had seen and one kobold escaped up the stairs. They also (finally) got the thief free, but he was down to 0.5 hit points (yes, I keep track of 1/2 hit points) and unable to fight.

  Note: In the past I have typically explained 1e combat starting with rounds and then breaking that down into segments. This time, after thinking about HackMaster Advanced, I explained combat starting with segments and then moving on to rounds. One group isn't "data" but they seemed to grasp the basics of combat a lot faster this way.

  Then a secret door opened and a lot more kobolds started coming in. Then more started coming down the stairs. J., ordered everyone out while he held them off, but they insisted he go and actually held off the hordes long enough for him to get away with just a little javelin hit.

  Note: When running the old mill I prefer to have one of the experienced players do a 'heroic last stand' and die. Why? Well, to show that it is just a game and characters die. And to show that an awesome, courageous death in a game can be pretty cool. Also, I coach the player a little bit - when the death happens they talk a bit about how that was pretty cool, then pull out another character and let me know they are ready if I need to introduce  the new guy. This, again, stresses that this is a game, that characters die, etc. it also sets them up for jazz band adventuring where each player has a stable of characters that they mix and match.
  Since I often am teaching younger players (under 10 fairly often, like this time) this, in my own experience, gives them the emotional distance they need; people that age naturally and properly become emotionally attached to characters and don't like Bad Things to happen to their family and friends. The staged 'heroic death' helps teach them that, once more, it is just a game. If they seem really upset? The party retrieves the body, they visit the bishop and they all learn about Raise Dead, too!
  This time, though, the party's actions had set up a viable escape plan - J. didn't want to act totally irrational and I didn't want to 'punish' the party by just dumping new critters on them until their foresight and planning didn't matter so - he lived.

The party rushed back to the village and sent word to the local baron - before sunset troops arrived, the remaining kobolds were cleared out, and the party had its reward money.



  This was obviously a short, sweet adventure designed to quickly introduce new players to ideas ranging from searching for traps to cover to roleplaying asking locals questions. It went well, they all had fun, and they all want to play again.

  Mission accomplished!

This Weekend - Tools for Teaching New Players

  This weekend will be the first of three over the next 2 months when I will be teaching people to play. This set is a dad (who played D&D in college) and his 3 teenagers. The next set are 4 teenage friends of my sons. The third will be three teenage brothers, also friends of my sons.

  I've been teaching new people how to play for about 37 years and I have slowly but surely built up some tools and ideas. Yes, I used to just throw them in the pool, but I am not 14 anymore.

  Since my main campaign and my main experience are with 1e I will be teaching them 1e. In my own opinion, it is one of the easiest systems to teach people - the stats are easy to explain, you can point to Tolkien about the races, classes are simple, etc. 2e adds skills which can really slow down character creation; 3e adds feats, too. I stick with 1e. Feel free to disagree.

  The first thing I do is send the people a copy of OSRIC and of my house rules. I also tell them I don't expect them to read them all (OSRIC is what? 404 pages? And my complete house rules are 64). But there is almost always a 13-15 year old kid who reads and understands a lot, which is nice and helps the others realize it isn't that hard.

  I also print out N+2 character sheets (N is the number of players making new characters) so that errors are OK. I usually make a custom sheet for each of my characters but for new players I love these free sheets from Dragonsfoot. Jon Woodland, thanks for making my life easier.

  I then press-gang 1 to 4 of my sons to help. When things are humming I have one of my kids helping each of the new players roll dice, select race and class, write things down, etc. while I supervise and answer questions.

  For new players I hand out some of these from my custom Massive Bag O' Dice handmade by my lovely wife. She made me a dice bag large enough for two pounds-o-dice and, by Heaven, I plan to fill it!

  I am trying something new this time. One of the most time consuming things for experienced players and most frustrating for new players goes a little something like this,

  DM: 'Roll 'to hit'"
  Newbie: "Which one is that?"
  DM: "The d20"
  Newbie: "Um, which one is that?"
  Experienced player: "That one"
  Newbie: "This one?"
  Experienced Player: "No, that's a d12, this one"
  Newbie: "Oh, OK"
  Wait 5 minutes. Repeat with same newbie.

 I call this new tool a 'dice sorter'. It looks like this;

  I will print our a copy for each new player and then place the appropriate die or dice on each image over the test and the newbie can just pick them up, roll them, and put them back until they know which die is which.

  I found out a long time ago that many (not all) new players are helped by things like lighting and music; the setting and ambiance can go a long way in helping them feel the immersion in the game. So this last week I picked up this to go with Syrinscape. Syrinscape is my gaming music app of choice and my review of it can be found here.

  I will use my 'standard method' for character generation, which all my players use: 3d6 in order, roll three full sets and take the set you prefer. Any set with 3 or more sixes or 2 or more five or less scores may be discarded.

  The first group is a bit on the younger side so they will face a scenario I call The Old Mill starring Clarence and His Kobolds. It will be three new player kids, their dad, and my oldest son. My oldest has been through the Old Mill 5-6 times like this, but he is very good at encouraging the others to lead and learn.

  The second and third groups are older so they will each have a unique encounter, probably with goblins and bandits, respectively. These other groups will also have my oldest son and probably second oldest to help them play.

  All three scenarios will involve tricks, traps, and combat and have 'plug ins' as needed (a place where tracking is valuable if they have a ranger but changes nothing if taken out; NPCs that react well to paladins or nobles; etc.).

  Anyone else have tips, tricks, or tools for teaching new players?