tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53841216083365163052024-03-16T03:21:19.218-04:00Ramblings of a Great KhanThis is a blog about "Old School" RPGs and the OSR movement in gaming. I also write about other stuff, like miniatures for wargames and RPGs, wargaming, my family, etc.The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.comBlogger578125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-77061148073433533612024-01-04T17:15:00.000-05:002024-01-04T17:15:11.282-05:002023 retrospective & 2024 plansOn the last day of 2022 I got married. In February 2023 I was invested as Baron of Delftwood, an SCA thing. Over the course of 2023 I ran D&D (OSE) fairly frequently until the summer SCA season hit, then it dropped off to pretty much nothing, and never really restarted for the rest of the year. Home renovations, illnesses (I ended up getting Covid twice), minor injuries that seem to take forever to heal now that I am middle aged, then holiday plans. I put my campaign on official hiatus I think in October, with two separate plans for the future. An AD&D OA game I am calling the "Swords of the Daimyo" campaign (because I am using the "Against the Black Temple" set up and hexcrawl to get us started) and my "OD&D 1974" game, where I intend to run a "pure" White Box OD&D game (initially), adding house rules and bits from supplements and/or fanzines as they reach 50 years of age. Neither of those two games has started yet, due to the previously mentioned list of delays and woes. I am really hoping to start both before the end of January though.The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-89265858911065630702023-03-28T17:17:00.005-04:002023-03-28T17:19:12.556-04:00Swords & Wizardry Revised Kickstarter<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmrz1CJXUtxzO_yDUsRJ1HeO4ubFiHrt9HnA7MlxK7vgZlJiNJ7xmDJHKyGTKgPEm6cy1RzMrCSQVQmEban3gBEGea2mANqiAdipEpVddqyho5R-3BCVeqbamukWmWVrE3274EAlOSP1yT1mettfqwUuAqq3umW4TaMzc-m237Zu_BS6eov5HEasjZA/s1056/Otus_cover_S&W.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="815" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmrz1CJXUtxzO_yDUsRJ1HeO4ubFiHrt9HnA7MlxK7vgZlJiNJ7xmDJHKyGTKgPEm6cy1RzMrCSQVQmEban3gBEGea2mANqiAdipEpVddqyho5R-3BCVeqbamukWmWVrE3274EAlOSP1yT1mettfqwUuAqq3umW4TaMzc-m237Zu_BS6eov5HEasjZA/w247-h320/Otus_cover_S&W.jpeg" width="247" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Alternate Erol Otus cover art</div><p></p><p>New Swords & Wizardry Kickstarter today - <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adventuredesigntome/swords-and-wizardry-complete-revised-rulebook?ref=7jt1ww" target="_blank">here</a>. I heartily recommend it. Matt Finch is a stand up guy, and S&W pretty much kicked off the OSR for me.</p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-58284128763490076852022-06-10T15:59:00.002-04:002022-06-10T15:59:24.366-04:00More play, less blogging<p> I am about to move to Syracuse, NY, and have been packing up stuff this week, so there's been a break in play. However, prior to me needing to move (my landlord died, his brother inherited and is selling the house), we've played a bunch of games I haven't blogged about at all. Sometimes twice per week. I divided it into seasons, with a Pendragon style winter phase, and we're fast approaching the second one of those. Season two has had seven or eight "episodes" so far, the Black City Vikings campaign is going strong, I hope it survives my move. </p><p>Here is some art from a Great Khan Games upcoming project - </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggN0kTOfQKFxOcZUsFBrqHChJbHMjV88EbYvKoFO8Cg2ticf4w4679cAQC7FQElD5u7p64JRE2tew1-VdyHK7RWtAA9wEoMdY3PfcZfBjxknQ55qRFDSQi5Ev1lUXDL_br5KX6tonRy8x5Uu21-GJgX7gjyRnyflZ4PX4wkexw-rZUEq7Pe_BRt_ijRg/s886/king-final.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="588" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggN0kTOfQKFxOcZUsFBrqHChJbHMjV88EbYvKoFO8Cg2ticf4w4679cAQC7FQElD5u7p64JRE2tew1-VdyHK7RWtAA9wEoMdY3PfcZfBjxknQ55qRFDSQi5Ev1lUXDL_br5KX6tonRy8x5Uu21-GJgX7gjyRnyflZ4PX4wkexw-rZUEq7Pe_BRt_ijRg/s320/king-final.png" width="212" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinO5MANd6qCDTCySxWsuZ-flB-veXKcGj8lpvpFSiG6786rZ3Q0oT3qF3WP3yEcd0NOgBOsBH-5JseZJFidrI3FWwMo2khHotsyV8mXoPmDhHBLjeqR2EexKf4BPUL_ZZ3VqeQm1H1SbSRGMKkQJyM-pkF0TXtaHdFQC_zb-c1M_UqaN-sU_z9QnZOVg/s933/vocontia-final.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="933" data-original-width="613" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinO5MANd6qCDTCySxWsuZ-flB-veXKcGj8lpvpFSiG6786rZ3Q0oT3qF3WP3yEcd0NOgBOsBH-5JseZJFidrI3FWwMo2khHotsyV8mXoPmDhHBLjeqR2EexKf4BPUL_ZZ3VqeQm1H1SbSRGMKkQJyM-pkF0TXtaHdFQC_zb-c1M_UqaN-sU_z9QnZOVg/s320/vocontia-final.png" width="210" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBUhbKk01RjQJTTwM9YEyt2boffOwI04PQI21dC7oTUW2yP4_lYJFEjsT0DPtvavqqrQp8vS1PZZgSl6FDkIquGtfxzs8sjSywIyHgGwks6tLD6rP1gGgfRMt4nxw6p6GU-d-XMPIDJ1YJzwgboyE4z9BOKtGrBhs9YZSJfMSRUCHH7vLs4tOCXxXnDQ/s831/kinght-final.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="831" data-original-width="550" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBUhbKk01RjQJTTwM9YEyt2boffOwI04PQI21dC7oTUW2yP4_lYJFEjsT0DPtvavqqrQp8vS1PZZgSl6FDkIquGtfxzs8sjSywIyHgGwks6tLD6rP1gGgfRMt4nxw6p6GU-d-XMPIDJ1YJzwgboyE4z9BOKtGrBhs9YZSJfMSRUCHH7vLs4tOCXxXnDQ/s320/kinght-final.png" width="212" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEX43ESn1i766bXeuFovS9YPRp6MAgY5uGXlAjGpdmRmr6hkv-X-x8WNKnNlp8ucvu7uEd6J7sjU1M0hZYf0RmqahdbjkF-IYIWPhnp-ckf_FD9vhaFGgxhlIq094umuxXN6Yq7WvTpnRTQrlxaTBFYoktBbNKUivFdb_Ub5cmxRXMfgDsi2-Jo-Fh-g/s749/assassin-final.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="494" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEX43ESn1i766bXeuFovS9YPRp6MAgY5uGXlAjGpdmRmr6hkv-X-x8WNKnNlp8ucvu7uEd6J7sjU1M0hZYf0RmqahdbjkF-IYIWPhnp-ckf_FD9vhaFGgxhlIq094umuxXN6Yq7WvTpnRTQrlxaTBFYoktBbNKUivFdb_Ub5cmxRXMfgDsi2-Jo-Fh-g/s320/assassin-final.png" width="211" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-62445834995842841902022-05-30T08:41:00.000-04:002022-05-30T08:41:08.701-04:00Andor | Teaser Trailer | Disney+<iframe style="background-image:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j5UX1Adanis/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/j5UX1Adanis" frameborder="0"></iframe>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-25439456800845350602022-04-14T18:10:00.001-04:002022-04-14T18:10:05.254-04:00Black City Session 3<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfHbIpEC7HqWrrhjhonQPp1mPnU-h2OWN1CyBIkYVgjqgdEGNIAIPP-Sdr5R8n-htVFUUuweO_N8P1CJ2Vh5TQhB2aNIhSIjakXG9W73gryHJM3QTYcvPNIl5rzQ-SpmTv9ZDwh6McqqSz1s6jgWBYA0U1Mfiv4Wpy4UN9-fSscQytCHGH70vrDBsftg/s720/Black-Cityscape.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="720" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfHbIpEC7HqWrrhjhonQPp1mPnU-h2OWN1CyBIkYVgjqgdEGNIAIPP-Sdr5R8n-htVFUUuweO_N8P1CJ2Vh5TQhB2aNIhSIjakXG9W73gryHJM3QTYcvPNIl5rzQ-SpmTv9ZDwh6McqqSz1s6jgWBYA0U1Mfiv4Wpy4UN9-fSscQytCHGH70vrDBsftg/w400-h114/Black-Cityscape.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">After
a couple of weeks off due to unavoidable issues, we played again last
night. One of the regulars was missing, and none of the irregulars
made it either, so we had just two players, so they each took two
back up characters with them as henchmen.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We
started late, mainly because we were chatty after a couple of weeks
off, but also because we were all trying to remember exactly what had
happened three weeks ago when we'd last played, parsing it all
together from our collective notes and memories.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Joe's
character Sigurd the daring has taken over the leadership role, since
Jason's character, whose name I can't recall now, who had been their
chief, died in session one. They decided trying to enter the towers
was too deadly, and going underground seemed like a death sentence,
so they were just going to explore the ruins and scavenge, while
avoiding any other Northmen. A decent plan, but they ran afoul of
some moaning shamblers (kind of Zombies, almost like on “The
Walking Dead”, except not as a virus), they mistook at a distance
for other Vikings.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
combat went well for most of the party, although Joe's Berserker
Angmar got pretty mangled. He survived, but only because we used the
Death & Dismemberment chart for fighting at 0 HP. He ended up
with a couple of broken bones and was stunned and prone at one point,
saved by the rest of the party. A couple of party members had nasty
bites, and were pretty grossed out that the undead were actually
eating their flesh.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
party trekked back to their ship and dropped off Angmar, grabbed Knud
Frisk the beefy (Joe's Magic-User) as a replacement and heaaded back
to the city, with the same game plan. They searched their way through
a couple of hexes before finding an intact building that turned out
to be a home base for some bandits. They went in assuming it to be
abandoned and searchable, tripped a trap near the entryway (gas,
poisonous, but merely incapacitating and vision obscuring), Sigurd
failed his save. Everyone else made theirs, and most of them surged
into the main room, and into a fight. A pair of archers shot at the
party as they emerged from the cloud of gas. </span>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
next round a spearman in a strange helmet moved to attack, more
arrows came at them from the archers. The party's counterstrike
killed the spearman.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
won initiative the next round again, and another group moved into
range, a guy carrying a “strange trumpet looking thing”
(Atlantean Lightning Gun), and two men with swords & shields
moving clearly in front of him as a shield wall to protect him. The
lightning gun fired, killing Knud and wounding Sigurd, whom Knud had
dragged from the gas cloud. I did make the ruling then and there that
magic/tech that drops you to 0HP or lower is a kill. The D&D
table makes no sense against those types of attacks.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Unfortunately
for everyone involved, the Atlantean Lightning Gun exploded on use,
killing the user, and his two guards instantly, and depriving the
party of the coolest treasure there. The party took down one of the
Archers, and the other surrendered, offering to show the party where
the hidden loot was. Magnanimous in victory, the party offered to
take the Archer on as a henchman, and the adventure would have
continued, but it was late in the evening, so they returned to their
ship and we called it quits for the night.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All
in all, it was a good evening of gaming, despite the poor player
turnout. I had fun, and I am pretty sure Joe and Jason did too.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
do need to go through and populate the hexes ahead of time, as it is
cumbersome to do at the table during play, which was also noted in
the original Black City campaign. I may also prep some wandering
monster encounters ahead of time. </span>
</p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-51458457557045449842022-04-08T17:51:00.009-04:002022-04-08T17:51:55.519-04:00Black City Vikings & Customization<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNB15S_Vn14kmPyL9vtXjwj3Zab3ikyhS1fQJHChPrWsC5mL6vbbudZnWvMfWISAI5JnCHPvJMZFvOtSTiWw3ICxerdTxF07edrpr7F4gnCUbeWoYGuD0GM06o4V1xoGYCD_2h25MiwRnowxYNC-JFK7_m7znzI5DA5e5_DoWvjc5AzZtTia_HNvqiQ/s1706/92877014_529072457801019_278813467081703424_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="965" data-original-width="1706" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNB15S_Vn14kmPyL9vtXjwj3Zab3ikyhS1fQJHChPrWsC5mL6vbbudZnWvMfWISAI5JnCHPvJMZFvOtSTiWw3ICxerdTxF07edrpr7F4gnCUbeWoYGuD0GM06o4V1xoGYCD_2h25MiwRnowxYNC-JFK7_m7znzI5DA5e5_DoWvjc5AzZtTia_HNvqiQ/s320/92877014_529072457801019_278813467081703424_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I don't recall where I found this image, but it seemed to fit the theme.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We've had to cancel two weeks in a row due to circumstances outside our control. I have however, had time to customize the setting some. In my version of the Black City, we're basically working under the assumption that everything is true. Conspiracy theories about ancient aliens, aliens (really core to the setting anyway), Atlantis, reptilians from the center of the earth, alternate dimensions and parallel worlds, Stargate type stuff, Lovecraft, mythology, everything.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The campaign takes place in a fairly realistic Viking age setting, until you get to the Thule islands and the black city. The players are, to the best of their abilities, playing their characters as Norsemen of the time period, with appropriate weapons and armor (I made a table to roll on for equipment at character generation, it saves a lot of time). I have made some concessions to magic, for what the Norsemen believed in, and added some flavor to the rules set we're using (LotFP, as suggested in the original Black City campaign). I added a couple of flavorful house rules too that seemed appropriate for the Viking Age, notable “Shields Shall Be Splintered” and “Death and Dismemberment” from the OSR blogosphere, and Berserker and Gothi classes, and some Skald skills.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In my head canon the Alien Greys that built the city died off, but their creations didn't. I have them as the creators of the Hyperboreans, who outlived their masters, and then tried to enslave the rest of the human race way back in prehistory. My Hyperboreans are essentially a human sub-species designed to act as overseers for the rest of the human and proto-human slaves the Greys kept. Tall, pale, cold resistant, magically adept, and psionic. Hyperboreans are familiar with the use of most Grey technology, but cannot make it, being (genetically manipulated) humans though, they are creative enough to effect some repairs, and jury rig some new devices, as well as use them in unintended ways.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Next come the Atlanteans. Also human, not genetically manipulated, descended from human slaves that escaped the Hyperboreans and settled Atlantis, they are tech users, which made them far more advanced than their Neolithic and Bronze age contemporaries. They have a whole gonzo Steam-Punk Tesla meets Magic with an ancient Greek aesthetic going on. Their tech is their own, as is their magic; different than that of the Hyperboreans, who are basically just scavenging from the Greys.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I mention both the Hyperboreans and the Atlanteans because, long after the Greys died out, they fought a long genocidal war against each other in my head canon, and one important front was the Black City. So their artifacts also litter the ruins, and they are responsible for some of the destruction of the environment there, and some of the deadly hazards of it too.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The Reptilians from the Earth's center, I am less sure about yet. I might want Silurians from Doctor Who, or maybe Sleestaks from Land of the Lost. Maybe both? Possibly neither.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I may or may not consider Robert E. Howard's Hyborean Age canon to the campaign, I haven't decided yet, but I'll have to slot in some other ancient stuff if I do. I am trying to slot in an old school Battlestar Galactica reference (The 13th Tribe of Man, “Life here began out there”), but need to reconcile it with the rest. My current thought is to use the Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha as the colony ship from Kobol, possibly some time travel shenanigans shoe-horned in to make it work logically in my mind. It would give us yet another ancient spaceship wreck somewhere on earth. Anyway, I want Colonial Warriors and Cylons to make an appearance, if only as an “ancient aliens” style background.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The dimensional gates make things like side trips to other campaign worlds a la Q1 a possibility, actually looking forward to throwing Carcosa in the mix. Thinking about adding some bits from ASE. I know I want dinosaurs at some point. Maybe some other time travel shenanigans so I can bring in Nazi occultists, possibly with a diesel-punk moon base.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The setting already has competing mad AIs and Alien ghosts and so much more.</p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-40908681777839882492022-03-28T10:13:00.005-04:002022-03-28T10:13:37.139-04:00Session Two - Black City<p> This one was a marathon eight hour session with a lot of exploration and some combat. Not all of the players were present for the entire session, two of them weren't at the game at the same time even, missing each other completely. I continued a policy of having everyone have three characters to play, one primary, one alternate/henchman, and one "on deck". Since I started all the PCs at 1st level, and didn't bother adjusting any of the random encounter lists or scaling any of the placed encounters, it seemed like a reasonable precaution. There were a few fatalities, and a couple of long-term injuries (broken bones from the "Death & Dismemberment" table. Cagey players are starting to abuse the "Shields Shall Be Splintered" rule, but I'll let it slide for now, as it is keeping fatalities low. </p><p>The players found some good loot this time, which was enough to push one of the Fighters up to level two. He had already become the de facto leader of the group, by virtue of having been a part of every expedition this crew has made into the city, and having lived to tell of it without suffering some debilitating injury.</p><p>They didn't run into any poison monsters this time, but they did run afoul of a pair of Watchers (limited Stone Golems), and one fatality occurred there. They managed to beat a Polar Bear, held a party on the beach for the other Norsemen, and recruited a witch/seeress away from another crew. </p><p>The hardest encounter of the night was a Wind Demon, and they did win that fight through shear luck and misplaced confidence. The "Death and Dismemberment" table was on their side in that fight, and my dice apparently wanted them to win, as I rolled a record number of 3s and 5s.</p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-77925884810870180412022-03-23T15:59:00.001-04:002022-03-23T15:59:08.529-04:00Session One of The Black City<p> I ran a session last Thursday, six men entered the Black City. They fought some Berserkers and were forced to retreat back to their ship for reinforcements. They headed back and found an intact building with a recently malfunctioning door (or so they assume), which they explored and found some loot and an Alien Grey corpse (although they are unaware of it's true nature) which they desecrated. On their way back to their ship they encountered several white furred snakes, and only two men survived. The Black City is a dangerous place.</p><p><br /></p><p>We will play again tomorrow evening.</p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-51455959913853868322022-03-17T11:49:00.001-04:002022-03-17T11:49:26.960-04:00Vikings and the Black City<p> So I decided to run a new campaign. A Viking campaign. A Viking campaign using John Arendt's "Black City" campaign setting, based off of the stuff on his <a href="http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/Black%20City%20Campaign" target="_blank">blog</a>. I've been re-reading through it for a week to refresh, written up and copy/pasted some stuff for it. We start tonight. I don't usually use other people's stuff, except for stealing ideas here and there, and some filler material I'll adapt into my own campaign, so I hope it goes well. </p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, thanks for the setting John.</p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-24109999293115754552022-03-09T14:23:00.000-05:002022-03-09T14:23:10.522-05:00Obi-Wan Kenobi | Teaser Trailer | Disney+<iframe style="background-image:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TWTfhyvzTx0/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/TWTfhyvzTx0" frameborder="0"></iframe>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-6151322961893529902021-10-29T13:06:00.004-04:002021-10-29T20:45:48.747-04:00Archery in old school D&D<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCwQJ1g9lJHuzDe05WDhK2K5BcM0YpBxXqnOBBBd_LjEGEBHJraJ-LoDvnryu8dZvIEjjLGSp26eY_7fgnFMfR4kZaVh0EMZoyezwxCXd5TGEkiuglL8WuwvNbOGOnxDUHxPQqvKzHIwC7/s1009/35ad25e6cbcd3bc58c0dbe36426ae0b4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1009" data-original-width="792" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCwQJ1g9lJHuzDe05WDhK2K5BcM0YpBxXqnOBBBd_LjEGEBHJraJ-LoDvnryu8dZvIEjjLGSp26eY_7fgnFMfR4kZaVh0EMZoyezwxCXd5TGEkiuglL8WuwvNbOGOnxDUHxPQqvKzHIwC7/s320/35ad25e6cbcd3bc58c0dbe36426ae0b4.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Archery sucks in early editions of D&D and here's why; it's either under powered or over powered, depending on rules and interpretations of rules. This actually includes all ranged weapons, bows just seem to suffer the worst because of their commonness of use. </p><p><br /></p><p>I don't know Chainmail well enough to comment on the relative effectiveness of archery in that game, but I am quite familiar with most iterations of TSR era D&D/AD&D. </p><p><br /></p><p>The game seems to be originally designed to emulate the early medieval period, up to, just barely, the high medieval period. The bow didn't dominate the battlefields of medieval Europe then. Cavalry was only beginning to really dominate. Heavily armored and well armed, they took a small fortune and years of time to train properly, and even then, often fought on foot, because of siege warfare being more common than pitched battles on open ground.</p><p><br /></p><p>Similarly, most of D&D, especially at lower levels, is traditionally spent in dungeons. Bows are mostly useless in dungeons, because encounter ranges are so short. AD&D giving bows a better rate of fire actually makes this worse, because people are loathe to give up their multiple attacks per round weapon, and the missile attack adjustments for Dexterity are better, making them seem like a more viable weapon to higher Dexterity characters.</p><p><br /></p><p>Don't fall for this. You'll get stuck in a cycle of retreating from enemies (to try and avoid melee), and firing into melee. In the first case you end up basically disengaged from the combat, in the second you become an active hazard to your own party.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, to avoid this, remember (or learn about) the period D&D was based on, and that trained melee fighters are the kings of battle. This is the post-Roman western European world, with the Viking age, and a host of other hordes invading, endemic internecine warfare and small kingdoms built by previous barbarian tribes on Roman ruins. Largely the bow is a tool used for hunting, they mostly weren't strong enough to have their arrows penetrate armor, and the kind of regular training as groups like the English used at Agincourt were centuries away yet, and the technology of the longbow itself was still a new thing; it's armor piercing arrows were also a long way from being invented.</p><p><br /></p><p>D&D was designed with the vision of people playing characters like Beowulf or Conan, or maybe King Arthur and his knights. The vision wasn't to have snipers dominating the battlefield. You can play that, but you are fighting the system, instead maybe, if you absolutely do not want to play a heroic front line fighter type, but still want to be a fighter, there are a couple of small fixes. Crossbows. Loaded and ready, they go before initiative in some D&D. Rate of fire is terrible, and variable weapon damage makes them worse, but you're only taking the one shot at the beginning of combat. Drop it and switch to a melee weapon (perhaps handed to you by your trusted henchman or hireling), but one with reach; a spear or a polearm, and fight from the second rank. No penalties, still in the fight. Remember the bow's rate of fire was a trap to lure you in.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The caveat here is that D&D grew to include stuff from out of it's original vision, stuff from the later medieval period, the renaissance and reformation periods, and even the early modern world; and from diverse cultures from around the world and a hefty dose of the purely fantastic, so it became possible to make a viable archer type character for D&D (much more easily than you could a swashbuckler type) and when you do, depending on the rules set an interpretations, they will then completely dominate the field.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once weapon specialization becomes an option, and specialized arrow types, the archer gets deadly. Most dungeon combats take place at close range, but to a bow specialist they are usually at point blank range within 30' they are +2 to hit and +2 to damage, and roll double damage, making a specialized archer get two attacks/round at 1st level, with each attack doing 6-16 points of damage, assuming normal arrows[(1d6+2) x 2]. Given that an archer is more likely to be a higher Dexterity character, and that players tend to play advantages and forget disadvantages, he's likely to be hitting at something like +6/+6, and rolling d8s instead of d6s for damage, possibly with a Strength bonus added (bows built for Strength cost more, but are still possible at lower levels). Wait until this guy is a few levels higher, and has a bow built for Strength to match his Gauntlets of Ogre Power or Girdle of Giant Strength, and he's getting 3 attacks per round at that +6 to hit, now with a +8 to damage on each of those attacks while using Sheaf arrows, maybe magic Sheaf arrows. </p><p><br /></p><p>Let's say this Archer is 7th level, equipped with normal sheaf arrows, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and a Bow built for up to 18/00 Strength. When within 30' of his target he's doing up to 3x (2d8 +8 ), at 18-32 points per hit, that comes to a maximum of 96 points of damage per round. That's enough damage to potentially take down a huge, ancient red dragon by himself in a single round, at 7th level. I say potentially, because even with his probable attack bonuses of +6, he still only hits 55% of the time (-1 AC for a Red Dragon), and his average damage per hit is only 25 points, so the odds are he only does 50 points of damage in the first round, leaving a little bit for the rest of the party to do.</p><p><br /></p><p>This will be exacerbated if we don't use the weapons vs. AC chart, the rules for firing into melee (which most groups forget in practice), or the rules for cover and/or concealment. These are all AD&D things (although similar rules may have cropped up later in the D&D line with BECMI or Cyclopedia and I just don't recall), but so is weapon specialization. </p><p>How do we fix this? Don't use Unearthed Arcana? Don't play 2nd edition AD&D? Tough to say really. I am not sure it can be fixed in AD&D, without changing the rules to disallow specialization, bows built for Strength or non-standard arrows.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-89631634571108092072021-01-23T15:49:00.000-05:002021-01-23T15:49:01.185-05:00How I Started<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc6xcYiuNNW4eFCpFbkfvuSiwZF3lpfx0ZvIdHFY8BMM_LgUAcDc8AIr22WC-lkhkgnI0ouUSAsAO7lhl1GVBSC1CGcTW7cq96G1hLRemaWE1kRQg7a79purUP3Ezfc7LI9CWJZKasep_z/s585/holmes+blue+book.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="451" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc6xcYiuNNW4eFCpFbkfvuSiwZF3lpfx0ZvIdHFY8BMM_LgUAcDc8AIr22WC-lkhkgnI0ouUSAsAO7lhl1GVBSC1CGcTW7cq96G1hLRemaWE1kRQg7a79purUP3Ezfc7LI9CWJZKasep_z/s320/holmes+blue+book.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I skipped a “Year in Review” type post this year, in no small part because 2020 pretty much sucked. I live in NY state, so we were among the first that really got slammed by the pandemic, although not near where I live. Here it's only just starting to get really bad. </p><p><br /></p><p>It has put my home game on an indefinite hiatus again, we skipped from March to August of 2020, and now we have not played since early December. We started this campaign because I wanted to run Stonehell and I had a group of people large enough to start, if we played old school with retainers and were smart. So far we've gotten in 24 sessions, which is pretty good considering the pandemic.</p><p><br /></p><p>I started dating a woman, got engaged. It was pretty fast, but I think we're good for the long haul. Planning a wedding for after the pandemic. We already shared some hobbies, but I got her into D&D, she's played in my campaign since August, as I recall. Her name is Sarah, I imagine she'll be mentioned her more often, as I blog more, which seems likely, since I am not playing D&D, so my D&D thoughts pretty much come here to be shared.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now to the topic of the post -</p><p><br /></p><p>How I started I've mentioned in several previous posts, mostly at the start of my blog as a thing, and I assume anyone reading this has gone back and read all the previous posts (lol), but I'll go over it again, since it's the thing to do <a href="https://lichvanwinkle.blogspot.com/2021/01/how-you-started.html" target="_blank">today</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>1. The year you began, and with which role-playing game?</p><p><br /></p><p>I started, I am reasonably certain in 1981, with Holmes Basic D&D. I can link it to me seeing Excalibur in the theater with my friend Chris Gorton. He saw I had really liked the movie and suggested we play D&D together. I was surprised he had a copy of the game, I had been looking for it locally for a year or more by then, having seen it in ads in “Boy's Life”, the scouting magazine.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Did you figure it out alone, or were you introduced by a lone but experienced GM, or by joining a preexisting group?</p><p><br /></p><p>Kind of both. I was introduced, a week or so after seeing that film together, by Chris, but he wasn't great at explaining the rules, and it was a super short introduction. I managed to find and buy a copy of Holmes Basic within a month or so, as I had already been saving my allowance up for it when I found it. I don't recall the price exactly, but it had to have been around ten dollars or a little more to make me have to save up. I spent a bit of time failing to grasp what was going on, and eventually, between me questioning my friend Chris, reading the rules myself, and asking my dad what he thought, I figured it out, with significant missteps along the way.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. What was your first group like? Was it private among friends, in a game store, or in a club? Were they older, younger than you? Did their style of play shape the way you played later?</p><p><br /></p><p>My first group lasted one session, Chris was DM, we played at my parent's house. I was the youngest player, the rest were two to three years older than me. It went alright, I guess. Chris was an interesting DM, compelling, but he ricocheted between Monty Haulism and Killer DM syndrome. Survive a session and you were a demigod, but the odds were not in your favor. I really learned the game playing with my dad, one on one, me DMing him as he controlled a party of PCs running through the “Keep on the Borderlands”, tons of mistakes along the way, but we learned from them and kept moving on. My dad never really got the game, and fantasy wasn't his thing, so he didn't really play much after those first games, but it was nice of him to try bonding with me over my interests. Ultimately my friend Tim MacDougal was DMing a game within walking/biking distance of my house and I started playing with him and his group, and ran a side campaign mainly with my next door neighbor Scott Whitmore, following a similar formula as I had with my dad. Scott ran a single PC as a leader of a party of NPCs and I ran a lot of half baked dungeons that I made up as I went along most of the time. For what it's worth Tim was doing the same thing for the group I was playing in. He really influenced my DMing style. Eventually I took over DMing duties from Tim, so he could get some playing time before he left for the army.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. Your favorite role-playing game. (Was it the game you started with?)</p><p><br /></p><p>First edition AD&D would be my best answer I guess, although none of us ever really ran it by the book, rules as written, probably because we couldn't understand it completely. It is technically a different game than Holmes Basic D&D.</p><p><br /></p><p>5. Anything else you want to share reflecting the impact of how you started on how you play(ed).</p><p><br /></p><p>None of us were wargamers going into this, especially not miniatures wargamers, so we missed the unwritten memo about using tons of Henchmen and Hirelings and thought our characters were supposed to be heroes from the get go. The end game was not spelled out for us either, so we just kept on playing as we had been, going against bigger, badder monsters in search of better and better loot. The answer to the question “Why do you adventure?” was “For riches and glory”. We didn't have a lot off angsty backstory (or any really at all for a starting character, really just more of a basic “my guy is a viking” or “I'm a Dwarf”). Lack of wargaming experience made our play different I think than was intended, but ultimately, D&D at least, kind of went in the direction my generation had been taking it. Too far maybe, but that's just my opinion. I have spent a long time trying to come back to the older style of RPG gaming, we use retainers pretty extensively now, we only used them to fill player gaps in the past. I am working on a domain game for my players. The world is original and, because I've DMed in it for forty years now, pretty easy to get immersed in. I can run my game in a style tailored to the players and how they want to play, everything from the character immersion thespian heavy style to the wargamer-ey third person role-playing. I rarely do voices though. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-2741965641653278652020-09-10T12:36:00.003-04:002020-09-10T12:36:22.452-04:00 Other Viking D&D stuff<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wg45186cG9qWtwah2Di98Jac3aLvxQI1LuXIwU1taQqkGJ1tYLJDvleQo__y0EA8D7bdyIJPcNPvw3_dvPxCesUekigQacnpgVF-pxZPoMsDT7xFW27gJ59tTZfzZZ7-vvYYT5WkHVIX/s1280/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wg45186cG9qWtwah2Di98Jac3aLvxQI1LuXIwU1taQqkGJ1tYLJDvleQo__y0EA8D7bdyIJPcNPvw3_dvPxCesUekigQacnpgVF-pxZPoMsDT7xFW27gJ59tTZfzZZ7-vvYYT5WkHVIX/s320/maxresdefault.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Trying to work on the house rules document for my proposed Vikings game, a good set of house rules sets the tone for the game, here I am going for something serious, kind of grim, but also heroic. </p><p><br /></p><p>The shield needs to get more love, because there's not much in the way of other armor. I was leaning towards making a shield give 50% cover from missile attacks, provided you aren't surprised or engaged in melee; along with some kind of level scaling fighter class bonus to AC, and a shield wall bonus. Shields Shall Be Splintered is an obvious choice here too, although I did recently see something about usage dice for the shield that could be good too.; a usage die makes for a good compromise between tracking shield damage and having essentially indestructible shields. A shield needs to be both more useful and more destructible for this game.</p><p><br /></p><p>The helmet should get something better than the standard nothing too I guess, I am thinking a +1 to AC there. Seriously in standard D&D there's no good reason to wear a helmet. I have always like that in Talisman the helmet basically gives you a saving throw versus losing your hit points, but that seems to over powered and fiddly for D&D.</p><p><br /></p><p>The equipment list could stand to be shortened, simplified, tightened up. I am thinking one armor – chainmail, you are either armored or unarmored, that's it. Lighter armor is not attested to in the sagas, nor has any evidence been found by archaeologists. A few lamellar plates have been found at a single site in Sweden, so I think it's safe to skip. Make chainmail a base AC of 5 [15], unarmored a base AC of 9 [11]. </p><p><br /></p><p>The weapons list can reasonably get edited down to Knife, Sword, Axe, Spear and Bow. Technically there is some variation there, 2 main styles of knife, one of which can overlap into sword, axes should probably get split into one and two handed varieties, and there are some small variations on spear type, but I don't think they are large enough to bother making them extra weapons based on that. The sagas speak of a type of polearm similar to a glaive, but none have ever been found, and given the funerary practices of the Norsemen, that makes their existence seem less likely.</p><p><br /></p><p>Weapons need to have properties that make them mechanically different, other than just the damage range, in part because I am considering a class based damage system. The axe seems simple, give them an advantage of some sort against shields, which plays into the shield rule ideas I have. Spears can have reach. Swords though? Other than their obvious prestige item status, what should they get? Bows are a ranged weapon, and I kind of want to encourage melee combat, because it seems more Viking in spirit, and actual historical practice too. Knives might be used in an off hand, and could be thrown, maybe they also can be used while grappling/being grappled?</p><p><br /></p><p>Berserkers need to be in the game, although I have had mixed results having berserkers in adventuring parties in the past, it just wouldn't feel like a Viking game without them.</p><p><br /></p><p>The concept of Fame or Glory is one I like from the Saga minigame from TSR and have always wanted to steal for an RPG. Basically it rewards you for the things you are already getting rewarded for in D&D, but kind of the inverse of the way that D&D does it for leveling. In OSR D&D at least, you get more rewards for treasure than combat, Fame is the opposite. In practice it tracks whether or not you are going to enter Valhalla, attract the notice of the Gods (for good or ill), and, as a zero sum game, decides the “winner”, that is to say who is the greatest hero of his age. I have been thinking about adapting it to D&D since Saga was new.</p><p><br /></p><p>On to Wyrd, or Fate. On the one hand I like the idea of having a secret stash of “get out of jail free” cards for the players, maybe a hidden number, perhaps rolled randomly at character generation, that will keep a character from dying at a given time. They are simply not fated to be dead yet, “the length of my life and the day of my death were fated long ago” and all. I admittedly have stolen the idea from TSR's Top Secret RPG. I also have considered the idea that Wyrd might be a “mana” pool, for spell casting or whatever. I am still hazy on this, but magic, in an old Norse context, is about manipulating Wyrd. </p><p><br /></p><p>So classes then... A straight up Warrior, a Berserker, a Skald and what else? Some kind of Thief/Scout type? Say “to hell with the initial concept” and hand wave in some magical classes? The zero level NPC crew members will be like the Torchbearers and Men-at-Arms in my current game, they work pretty well and have possible advancement built in to them.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have a seed of an idea for some background/social class stuff too, I figure anything that helps define the character for role-playing purposes has to be good, right? That might be some kind of old school heresy there, but I liked the family, birth right and ancestry from AD&D's Oriental Adventures book, despite it actually making character generation take twice as long. Some kind of pared down version of that might be nice, and the extra time is made up in not having nearly as large an equipment list for players to obsess over. Maybe something quick and dirty like the “Gifts” table in the Viking Campaign Sourcebook? Although I kind of want to avoid some of them, based on my desire to take absolutely normal humans and place them in a fantasy setting, which is a campaign set up I apparently keep coming back to; I did it with the Mongol invasion of Japan, I did it with Vikings once before, I did it with ancient Gauls and Romans. That's just off the top of my head, I've probably done it with others too.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, on a completely unrelated note, did I just dream up the idea of Elves being turned as though they were Undead of equivalent Hit Dice? Because they are soulless creatures of Chaos? So, I was sure I had read that somewhere, I have even used it in a campaign before, but I thought I had seen it elsewhere, like on a blog somewhere, back when blogs were where the OSR was happening, before G+ and all that. To be honest, I was sure it was a Lamentations of the Flame Princess rule, but I looked it up and their Clerics get Turn Undead as a spell, rather than an innate ability, and there's no mention of Elves in the spell. I am happy to claim credit for the idea if it was mine, but I was sure I saw it elsewhere. I have been looking, on and off, for weeks though and found no evidence of it. In my mind's eye I can see a black & white illustration of an Elf recoiling from a Cross even, so this is some Mandela Effect territory here.</p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-47722240586693951932020-09-09T16:00:00.002-04:002022-03-11T19:15:51.838-05:00 D&D, Vikings & “Land of the Lost”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7fyZ8cWRooFAB4lB_JjaNskfIVBFEh-CPwxy4-xfyXaVSxDykkpLBou7jqZziX1bsWBH2ADPSb9EFtvMcgF1dNITlDEeTUZCvCxhhXKSolnbegERGwy64fex6llYL3HVOs0nOfNdbeDE/s556/viking_longship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="556" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7fyZ8cWRooFAB4lB_JjaNskfIVBFEh-CPwxy4-xfyXaVSxDykkpLBou7jqZziX1bsWBH2ADPSb9EFtvMcgF1dNITlDEeTUZCvCxhhXKSolnbegERGwy64fex6llYL3HVOs0nOfNdbeDE/s320/viking_longship.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>How D&D does your game have to be to still be D&D? D&D is the lingua franca of RPGs, and I use the D&D chassis to run games in any genre or setting. I am currently running a pretty standard D&D campaign based around Stonehell Dungeon, although set in my own long running Garnia campaign setting. I was going to start a second group in the same world, in a different area and stick in the Isle of Dread, WotC decided it travels around anyway, so why couldn't it come to my campaign world? Anyway, I have also been fairly obsessed with the idea of running a Norse/Viking campaign lately, my girlfriend likes Vikings and said she'd be interested in trying it, so that's a plus there. I have been adding in a few house rules, and “<a href="http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2008/05/shields-shall-be-splintered.html" target="_blank">Shields Shall Be Splintered</a>”, along with “<a href="https://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2008/06/playing-with-death-and-dismemberment.html" target="_blank">Death and Dismemberment</a>” have crossed my path again, and they are both pretty Viking-ish rules, which got me thinking some. Then I saw on Facebook that it was the anniversary of “Land of the Lost”, and started thinking of Vikings and the Isle of Dread combining into a Vikings enter the Land of the Lost combo of the two, which seems pretty cool to me. Obviously the Isle of Dread and the Land of the Lost aren't the same, but they do have a bunch of similarities. The video game “Lost Vikings” comes to mind too. </p><p><br /></p><p>So now I am mentally altering the Isle of Dread to more closely resemble the Land of the Lost, conceptually, and I got to thinking that these Vikings aren't going to be a “regular” D&D party. For a more “realistic” campaign, they should all be Fighters or Thieves, or maybe port the Specialist from LotFP into my OSE based game? No magic though, for sure, right? Or maybe? If I look at how the Norse saw magic as existing in their own world, maybe I could somehow adapt it. Rune magic was done in “The Northern Reaches” gazetteer for BECMI I think, although I have not read it. It is also present in the “Viking Campaign Sourcebook” for 2nd edition AD&D, although I don't remember liking it there. Norse magic is about subtly altering wyrd, not blowing your enemies up with fireballs, it can include divination or communing with the dead, but mostly it's about altering luck, either yours or an enemy's. Runes, seið, Galdr, none of those are flashy D&D magics, even magic healing isn't instant; so I guess magic could be an issue. My thought is maybe make a “Cleric” class that can do these things? Or add them as a skill set of some sort to any PC? Or just go the “no magic” route? I was thinking of a Skald class too, that had some skills that could help the party? Maybe non-magic oriented? </p><p><br /></p><p>Something else entirely? How much D&D can I strip out of D&D and have it still be D&D? Does D&D require magic? I am thinking that the Isle of Dread is going to have some weird magic stuff going on, and probably some high tech too, in keeping with the spirit of the “Land of the Lost” series. Can we have D&D without Magic-Users and Clerics? Will people want to play such a game? Who knows. Maybe let PCs take on these classes after getting to this world? Is that cheating the system?</p><p><br /></p><p>I am also considering starting the PCs at roughly 4th level (the recommended starting level for X1) and having them already have as many retainers as they are allowed by their charisma scores, to represent their personal households, warbands, what have you; my thought is that they are all members of a single ship crew to start. I may have them shipwreck on the isle of dread, I have had some good success with that as a start to the module in the past; although taking away the party's greatest asset at the beginning might be a bad idea too.</p><p><br /></p><p>My memories of “Land of the Lost” are pretty distant, I may need to track down and watch the series again before I launch this thing, assuming my players want to play a “Lost Vikings” type of game. I might suggest some movies for my players to watch leading up to the game too. “The 13th Warrior” comes immediately to mind, maybe the TV series “Vikings” too. Need to get people into the spirit, portray Norse characters as well as they can, without me recommending a slew of Sagas and history books.</p>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-18027611337151663232020-07-20T14:10:00.000-04:002020-07-20T14:10:35.443-04:00It's been a while now...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgupcjWG150Jr0gXQCjXRp9gYJLC_AOI613iLyIywkgMGS0uVTqEgGIOCbyug0ubO8GBsvTdzH5sAHmMcyxPwAArw6p2hu4ba_OL2h34_WsVq3rsTF8GpouAwTRALK1LTJ2PXuIz_MhYBYq/s487/barbarian-1_orig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="487" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgupcjWG150Jr0gXQCjXRp9gYJLC_AOI613iLyIywkgMGS0uVTqEgGIOCbyug0ubO8GBsvTdzH5sAHmMcyxPwAArw6p2hu4ba_OL2h34_WsVq3rsTF8GpouAwTRALK1LTJ2PXuIz_MhYBYq/s320/barbarian-1_orig.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Picture unrelated to text, purely to grab your attention</div><div><br /></div><div>A number of things have been running through my mind lately about D&D, well really RPGs in general and D&D, my favorite RPG, in particular. D&D is the 600 pound gorilla of the RPG world, and some of it's modern controversies occasionally cross my field of view. Racism has been a big one lately, between the “Orcs are inherently evil, and therefore a racist stand in for non-whites” and the “Oriental Adventures is racist and should be taken down from Drivethru”.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think both of these arguments are wrong, but I can understand why they were made, and I also understand that my feelings on this should not be the focus here, when people say that something is bothering them, we should listen, and try to help where we can. I think WotC made a good call putting a disclaimer on the old TSR stuff, not so much with the wording as with the intent behind it, even if it was maybe just to cover their own behinds while continuing to sell “offensive” materials.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am the Admin for the AD&D Oriental Adventures group on Facebook. I created the group years ago when I saw there wasn't a group for OA fans already. I have never really had to actively moderate this group until the past couple of weeks. I had to add rules to the group, to keep things civil, and I have still had to delete a couple of dozen posts recently. It's frustrating for me, and I am sure for the people that have had their posts deleted for violating rules. I get it, you are upset that there has been a call to remove OA from distribution. I don't think OA is racist myself, and it was pretty enlightened as a treatment for east Asian themed AD&D when it was written. The name was a bit tone deaf in 1985, but not especially so (no real defense for the 3e version having the same name in 2001). </div><div><br /></div><div>Having watched over 10 hours of the “Asians Read Oriental Adventures” videos, I found them frustrating, as they didn't seem to understand AD&D, and complained pretty ceaselessly about how AD&D wasn't the kind of story game they liked, and assumed that some AD&D rules were simply racist ways to play Asians in D&D. They also took serious issue with the fact the OA is a mash up of all east Asian cultures, which I found annoying, as it is exactly the same thing AD&D does with European cultures (along with elements from the rest of the world, but especially western Asia and north Africa), while they also complained that it was too Japan oriented. The Japan-centric focus of OA makes sense for the time it was produced as we had recently gotten the extremely popular Shogun novel and miniseries, the Karate Kid, and the ninja craze was in it's bloom.</div><div><br /></div><div>Were there racist things in OA? Yes. Certainly there were. The implication that east Asians all have Ki powers, making them all more mystically attuned is certainly pretty racist, for example. Ki powers are also a pretty important part of a lot of the media we were getting from Asia at the time though, so it might have been odd to leave them out. In any case, I think Oriental Adventures was a product of it's time, and that at that time it was an American made love letter to the Asian fantasy were were getting from Asia. OA also stoked my love for Asian culture. I have studied a lot of Asian history and OA was probably at least partially responsible for that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, on inherently Evil species, and Alignment in general. D&D has always had this Alignment based cosmology, and I think it's important here to note that it is literally a declaration of what team you are supporting in a cosmic struggle. In my opinion that's the more important part than the code of behavior that your Alignment dictates. I think that adding the Good/Evil axis to Alignment may have broken it a bit, mainly because Lawful was generally considered to be the “Good guys” and Chaotic was already seen as Evil; creating a Lawful that was Evil, or a Chaotic that was Good messed with the dynamic. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now all Orcs being inherently evil smacks of biological essentialism, and that's the sort of thing that justifies things like colonization, slavery, or eugenics; all of which are bad (and I really wish I still lived in a world where I didn't need to state that). I get where these people are coming from when they say it's racist to have all Orcs be Evil. I also have seen Tolkien's statement about Orcs being like ugly Mongols, and he really is the father of that species in modern fantasy. The issue I have with this is that I never saw them that way. At worst I saw them as a generic savage “other”, my earliest DM used Orcs basically as Viking analogues raiding and plundering against our civilization, so I really have always cast them in the light of an implacable barbarian foe, the tribes of Germans that brought down Rome, or the Huns, or the Vikings, or the Mongols, or at least a caricature of those peoples. They were savages from elsewhere, seeking to destroy civilization and plunder it's wealth, usually thoughtlessly destructive, almost a force of nature. Looking at this I can see how it could be seen as racist, but most of the named savages are white folks. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now we need to factor in one more thing though, the Gods are real, and there really is a grand cosmic struggle between Good and Evil (or Law and Chaos if you prefer). In my Garnia campaign this is a constant, real factor, although the struggle is referred to as one between Light and Darkness, which, apparently, has it's own racist connotations when Light equals Good and Darkness Evil. Anyway, Orcs, in standard D&D cosmology, are created beings, the minions of Gruumsh, of course they are inherently Evil followers of an Evil god. The same is true in Lord of the Rings, they are essentially slaves of Sauron, as I recall they were originally Elves that were corrupted. In my campaign Orcs are created beings used as shock troops by the real forces of Evil for use in their interplanar war. There's a lot of backstory there, but Orcs are a newer species in my game and haven't explored their full potential. </div><div><br /></div><div>But, Humans are inherently Neutral. They have free will to choose which side to support, but most of them will happily enjoy the benefits of civilization without ever committing to it via a Lawful Alignment, both in my world, and in OD&D. Cosmologically speaking, Humans are free agents, their Gods come in all Alignments, and they have many, many gods, some petty, some mighty. There's a bit more to it, the plane that my campaign world is on is a good aligned one, albeit only in a minor way, so it slightly shifts the Humans to favor Good Alignments more than usual, but the choice is still there.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also, there are examples of creatures breaking free of their pre-ordained Alignments. Dark Elves are an example of this (at least it's my campaign's explanation for Evil Elves), but I also have a single culture of Goblins that have broken free of their Evil Alignment, although they are not generally speaking Good Aligned, and some choose Evil, they broke free and got a choice.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I assume that the stated Alignment for any given species is the general Alignment for them, not the only Alignment found there. Maybe 1% or fewer members of the species shake the stated Alignment, but it could happen. I assume that's what's going on when players choose a non-species standard Alignment for their characters. Dwarves are Lawful Good, per the book, but most PC Dwarves vary from that, in my experience. Elves, on the other hand, are Chaotic Good in AD&D, and you see that pretty regularly, occasionally dropping to Chaotic Neutral for the Edgy ones, or Neutral Good for the nicer ones. D&D literature already gave us Drizzt, decades ago.</div><div><br /></div><div>I guess what I am saying is that a certain degree of bio-essentialism seems to make sense in a fantasy world, where there are real forces of Good and Evil out there creating sentient beings to do their bidding, and if all Orcs aren't inherently evil, where do we stop on the Evil food chain? There are a lot of Evil monsters out there. Ogres? Giants? Dragons? Outer planar creatures like Demons? How about the sentient and free-willed Undead, like Vampires or Liches? </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, having said this, I heard about, but have not seen or read, a 5th edition D&D supplement that separates culture from ancestry (species). I don't hate this idea, although it does lean hard into some new ideas that are popular in RPGs, namely what I call the “no humans” trend, where it seems like every player wants their character to be somehow absolutely unique. I am guessing this comes from story games, and I was a little surprised when I watched the Asians Represent videos how strongly they seemed to feel that the DM should not be able to dictate anything to the players about what type of characters they might play. As a DM I found the concept intriguing, but also annoying enough that I would have smote them for their attitude if they'd brought it to me like that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, I am guessing ancestry (species, race) is the genetic component of your character, and culture is how you were raised. In my campaign world I have Dwarves called “Broken Dwarves” because they no longer live within their culture, they live amongst the Humans that have come to dominate the world they live in, and have relatively little tying them to their ancestral ways. Where there are communities of Broken Dwarves they tend to dominate certain trades, based on their ancestral ties to those trades, but then again they might just become sailors too.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now that I think about it, most of the PC races available in the 1st edition AD&D PH tend to live in Human communities in my world, which isn't to say they all do. There is still an extant Dwarven kingdom (really a bunch of smaller sub-kingdoms tied together by a shared past, but with large swathes of lost territory between them). There are entirely Halfling villages, although mainly under the protection of the nearby local Human communities. Elf PCs mainly come from a background in Human communities, their empire having long ago fallen, although some “wild” Elves exist in wilderness areas beyond Human reach.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now all of these being different species, I am not sure how the cultural part works, but the genetic part seems pretty straightforward, Dwarves are heartier, so they get the +1 to CON. Elves are quicker than Humans, so a +1 to DEX, etc. Humans are the base line, so no +/- anywhere, my guess is the -1 to CHA for Dwarves is based on their comparison to Humans, but it seems like a CHA bonus or penalty maybe should have been a cultural thing, which implies then that either Dwarves are genetically predisposed towards gruffness, or maybe that penalty should go elsewhere. Half-Orcs even more so.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of Half-Orcs, they are somewhat problematic. Orcs being inherently Evil, and apparently super fertile, they clearly go around raping everything they can, which would imply a lot about the setting of D&D that I'd really rather not have to deal with. I like to keep the level of my D&D games roughly PG-13, although pretty much every D&D game would get a R for violence. I am not squeamish, but the rape backstory of the entire Half-Orc species is pretty bad, and kind of racist. I wasn't really comfortable with that once I gave it due consideration, and it was particularly awkward when I played with my wife and kids. I included them when I created this campaign setting back in the day, because they were in the PH as a PC race, but I would give them a pass these days. </div><div><br /></div><div>I might consider them as a separate type of Human in a species plus culture context, essentially as Humans raised in Orc culture. I did that in another campaign with Half-Elves, I made them Elf-Karls, who were Humans raised by Elves in my Ostschild setting a couple years back. They weren't playable then though, but it makes for an interesting take on Half-Orcs, and it removes the rape background, as well as, quite likely, the racist connotations of miscegenation. Problem solved? Maybe. Maybe I'll revisit the idea of Elf-Karls for Garnia too, so it removes the “Star Trek” issue of every species being able to interbreed with every other species. </div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe not though. I had previously explained the genetic compatibility to the species being related, Elves essentially being an uplifted variant of human, infused by the forces of light into a new species, nigh immortal, with a greater natural affinity to both nature and magic; Orcs, on the other hand, deliberately created from humans infused with wild boar via magic (Pig-faced Orcs in my world). The benefit of Half-Orcs was that they could act as 5th columnists in Human society. The ability to interbreed with Elves just a random accident of being related. Elves and Orcs not being able to interbreed being a function of the opposite natures of their creation.</div><div><br /></div><div>If we're pulling apart culture and species though, I think we should also consider social class. Cultural values are important and all, but I think a lot more of what makes you comes from the social class you are born into. Even today in the USA the zip code you grew up in is a better indicator of how well you are likely to do in life than any other single factor. A rural peasant's background is going to give you an entirely different outlook on life, and a different skill set, than someone born to the nobility, or even a tradesman's child.</div>The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-10771260420886093882020-04-16T22:36:00.000-04:002020-04-16T22:36:44.140-04:00Contest ends<br />
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The Celtic themed short adventure
contest ends, not with a bang, but a whimper. I got a single entry
for it was all, despite the many questions I was asked.</div>
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No worries, we can do another sometime
when things are more settled.</div>
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I have had a lot going on during this quarantine, I lead a great Klingon house now (Kurkura, the line started
by late KAG founder John Halvorson [Thought Admiral Kris epetai-Kurkura],
and thus the oldest line in Klingon fandom), I started a classic
Battlestar Galactica costumed fan club (currently on Facebook and
Discord), and I have watched a lot of TV.</div>
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I am currently watching season 2 of
Netflix' Korean zombie show “The Kingdom”, which of course makes
me want to play some AD&D Oriental Adventures. It's a seriously
cool show, best zombie thing I have seen since the early seasons of
“The Walking Dead”. I put it off for a long time because I hate
to watch things subtitled, they require my full attention, so I can't
multi-task. Now I have the time, and I am glad I started it.</div>
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My late sister's birthday was yesterday, so I thought quite a bit about her. Today is my mother-in-law's birthday, we haven't spoken a lot since Mona died, but I sent her a birthday greeting, and got a response; so that got me thinking about Mona again. Truly, she's never far from my thoughts, my house is full of reminders of our life together, but this was in a more active way.The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-81493572576746551192020-04-09T11:18:00.000-04:002020-04-09T11:18:20.707-04:00The State of The Great Khan Today<br />
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I am not going to lie, this has been an
odd month. I started the month on fire with a renewed zeal for
blogging, gaming and all the historical themes for old school D&D
that I love. We entered our quarantine, which has sucked. I had a
couple of recent deaths hit close to home, one was a kid that grew up
in my tiny neighborhood, younger than me. The other a friend, and
something of a mentor, older than me, but not what I'd call old. I am
a little amused that my definition of “old” keeps changing as I
age. In July I'll be 51, when I was a teenager 30 was old, now it
seems like you need to be maybe 80, at a minimum, to qualify.</div>
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I am sliding into depression. I have
had a tendency towards depression as long as I can remember. I am a
Gen-Xer, so we're a little more open about talking about this sort of
thing than say, the Greatest Generation, but not really much;
Millennials and Zoomers are a lot more keen to share what we'd
consider weaknesses. I take a little comfort in knowing that I am not
alone, and it has touched the lives of great men like Winston
Churchill (not really an opening for a debate on Churchill, he was a
complex individual and a product of the British empire at it's
height).
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The short adventure design contest.
There are six days left in the contest, and I assumed a general
quarantine worldwide would make it a wee bit more popular. Maybe it's
because I never announced prizes? Maybe because I failed to get
sponsors like in contests past? I have received a single completed
adventure and perhaps a dozen or so inquiries about the parameters of
the contest itself. Several people have stated that they'd love to
enter, “if they have the time”. I could extend the deadline, I
could cancel right now, but I don't think either would help. I've
extended the length of a contest in the past to allow more time for
entries, and it didn't really work. Canceling seems like admitting
failure.</div>
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The Klingon Assault Group, a Klingon
centered costumed Star Trek fan club I have talked about before here
on the blog, lost it's founder, John Halvorson (AKA Kris
epetai-Kurkura) on March 26<sup>th</sup>. He was also the founder of
House Kurkura, of which I was a member. He was the friend and mentor
I mentioned above, and the reason I had the KAG logo with the black
line through it as my Facebook profile picture. Last Saturday I was
selected from among the Kurkura to lead the House, the oldest in KAG.
This has drawn a good deal of my attention for the last couple of
weeks away from gaming and any other pursuits. I pray I am up to the
task of leading them, and that I might honor John's legacy in doing
so. He was a lion of a man, may he rest in peace.</div>
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As far as gaming goes, I am having a
hard time moving online. My internet connection gets really spotty
pretty much every evening, I am having trouble keeping Roll20 and
Discord working at all. I am also having focus issues with running
things on Roll20, and I pretty much hate using the maps there. I have
tried playing in a couple of games since the pandemic started, to get
my sea legs back, as it were; but the quality of my internet
connection has prevented me from really participating. I cannot wait
to get back to face-to-face gaming, and I really hope my group sticks
together after this is over.
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My overwhelming feeling about setting
things up on Roll20 is that, if I am going to go to this much effort
to set up the maps, why wouldn't I just make it a Neverwinter Nights
module? I ran the Norseworld server for like 18 months before
catastrophe struck there. I spent days creating new areas while the
kids were in school and Mona was out of the house, the kids would
playtest/stress test new stuff when it was ready, and when te bugs
were worked out I'd add it to the server. The added bonus was
everyone got to play there. I could run as DM or play a character. I
didn't hate that.</div>
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Not seeing people has made me start to
miss people I haven't seen for years along with the ones I still see
regularly, old friends I fell out of contact with for one reason or
another, people I used to game with especially.</div>
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Possibly related is that I have sought
out the things I used to love, comfort TV and books, to pass my time.
I am currently running through the classic 1978 Battlestar Galactica
as my obsession du jour. I was pretty deep into it's fandom back in
the 1990's. I wonder why it never got the cosplay fandom that Star
Wars and Star Trek both got? I remember as a kid I thought those BSG
uniforms were the coolest, and I really wanted to order the Colonial
Warrior jacket out of Starlog when I spotted it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRh1AEvK6ZJSijBfEAEQ8TyNzT8s44ZZRCLocXRtzx9iVzOfn_UgGgjmHiwDO7zwGQwjwYl0-XRUMBLdXDmqd6D-PRHevPQcP7iDxEkZB-ksYJ6yh5_Tjv-qKXsruDSyOQOd1phyV2CdtD/s1600/COLONIAL+WARRIORS+JACKET+FM173.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1183" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRh1AEvK6ZJSijBfEAEQ8TyNzT8s44ZZRCLocXRtzx9iVzOfn_UgGgjmHiwDO7zwGQwjwYl0-XRUMBLdXDmqd6D-PRHevPQcP7iDxEkZB-ksYJ6yh5_Tjv-qKXsruDSyOQOd1phyV2CdtD/s320/COLONIAL+WARRIORS+JACKET+FM173.jpg" width="236" /></a></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
No hate for the new Galactica, if
that's your jam, mine will always be the original though. Man I loved
that show! BSG taught us how to swear without swearing, with words
like “Frak” and “Felgercarb”, which was useful when I was 9
years old. I built those models as a kid, and I was terrible at
building models. I owned the Viper toy, and it fired it's missiles. I
remember BSG being as big as Star Wars had been the year before,
maybe bigger, because it was on every week with new episodes.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Let's not forget the absolutely epic
score either -
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n8sCDODxqQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n8sCDODxqQ</a><br />
<br />
<br />The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-17986218917898558772020-04-01T13:35:00.001-04:002020-04-01T13:35:20.983-04:00Contest Update for April 1st<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggfoMHB1m-upCyyMNiRBx3wIE0O6TILm1IL0Nt0r2hQ6NvCkmIZFTbXqw5N6s26nlTeZfo7AoMH6hgeIpEKfV-2Qycg5QgsuEwNTtqFGQHMaxFJj0PD9Z1drBPLgqkhpcioknHZWJiB_dM/s1600/Chariot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="500" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggfoMHB1m-upCyyMNiRBx3wIE0O6TILm1IL0Nt0r2hQ6NvCkmIZFTbXqw5N6s26nlTeZfo7AoMH6hgeIpEKfV-2Qycg5QgsuEwNTtqFGQHMaxFJj0PD9Z1drBPLgqkhpcioknHZWJiB_dM/s320/Chariot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We have 15 days left to this contest.
The Celtic theme, which seemed so popular in the poll, has apparently
stymied the creativity of many of you, so I have loosened the
restrictions and opened the contest up for any short, TSR era D&D
edition Compatible adventures. Now adherence to the Celtic theme will
grant bonus points for an entry, but is not required.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I am a little concerned that I have
only received one entry thus far, but since there have been a myriad
of questions concerning the contest, I remain hopeful that we will
meet some minimum threshold for this to be considered an actual
contest.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have been told that we should avoid
sending out physical prizes as long as the plague still stalks the
land, so I will instead give DrivethruRPG gift certificates. I am
thinking the prizes will be proportional to the number of entries
received, the more entries, the greater the value of the prizes, and
the number of prizes as well.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I don't think it makes sense to give
more than a single prize for fewer than ten entries, and I don't
think a single entry even constitutes an actual contest. So I am
thinking a single small prize when we reach five contest entries.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have heard from a few of you out
there that you would write something for this contest, but you've
never written an adventure before, or you've never written anything
for other people to read. My advice is be bold, everyone starts
somewhere, and most of us have this kind of anxiety over whether or
not it's going to be “good enough”. The worst thing that happens
is you fail, however you define failure, and failure is a great
teacher.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Anyway, good luck, and I hope that you
all receive some inspiration to write and adventure for the contest.</div>
<br />The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-6816095317019470472020-03-27T12:31:00.004-04:002020-03-27T12:33:17.939-04:00Just write Something<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiclnnKDRf4jFClJUKhplFa2nP2ufktNt4OdO0PHxOxwwJWb1sfE4rF4fPxCYvET425a4tsxjir9jJw68q1-uyQdWYdgKrIFxHNgLDFqrE5RmN0I_Bvy86sHQ4GNT_YnnUXZ9jykXkE1YfS/s1600/EORoguesBack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="555" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiclnnKDRf4jFClJUKhplFa2nP2ufktNt4OdO0PHxOxwwJWb1sfE4rF4fPxCYvET425a4tsxjir9jJw68q1-uyQdWYdgKrIFxHNgLDFqrE5RmN0I_Bvy86sHQ4GNT_YnnUXZ9jykXkE1YfS/s320/EORoguesBack.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
unrelated Erol Otus art</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You know what? This corona virus
related out of work time is pretty stressful, so I am going to open
the contest up to any adventure, and just give bonus points for
adherence to the Celtic theme. So if you all want to write any style
or type of adventure, feel free. Any of you that voted for another
theme as your preference, write an adventure in that theme, or no
theme at all. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
All adventures are welcomed here. I am now thinking I will look towards gift certificates at DrivethruRPG as prizes, as I am told that parcels should start being kept to a minimum for the duration of the pandemic crisis.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In non-contest related news, I am going to be running my Stonehell Dungeon campaign on Roll20/Discord starting Thursday evening at 6:00PM (EST), let me know if you'd like to join.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Keep yourselves busy during this difficult time, but
take care of yourselves.
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-63588788244246183252020-03-20T16:56:00.001-04:002020-03-20T16:57:19.088-04:00Gaesatae Class for B/X (OSE)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBkKtJXz9Zai2OBH0ob1nbWw-8g6ys4nwgjn2bGrztlbPSa5cgBk0Ed33AwwP5wkqcTuj2iqyUy9F3pDdywmqbq7ODfhvucT-BkSP_twroqTGbzvz99FCJk4FBHNbFeTRFjiblTPWMgck/s1600/22499185_835304889983463_2330789149916971658_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1133" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBkKtJXz9Zai2OBH0ob1nbWw-8g6ys4nwgjn2bGrztlbPSa5cgBk0Ed33AwwP5wkqcTuj2iqyUy9F3pDdywmqbq7ODfhvucT-BkSP_twroqTGbzvz99FCJk4FBHNbFeTRFjiblTPWMgck/s320/22499185_835304889983463_2330789149916971658_o.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Starting as far back through the mists
of time as I can, I am creating a class for the Celtic Adventure
Challenge Contest in hopes that it may inspire some more of you to
enter. To be honest there isn't a whole lot known for sure about the
Gaesatae. Polybius tells us the name means “mercenary”, but it
literally means “armed with javelins/spears” in Gaulish, and is a
cognate to the Irish Gaelic Gaiscedach “Champion”. You can learn
that from wikipedia though, I just looked it up there as a refresher
myself. I am making them an alternate take on the Fighter class, one
that eschews armor other than a shield and helmet (maybe). They
appear to have been a pan-Gaulish warrior movement, similar in nature
to the Norse Jomsvikings, but with more evidence of their actual
existence. It's partly a warrior society, partly a religious cult, so
I'll be adding a few religious bits there too. These are the “naked”
Celtic warriors that struck fear into the hearts of the Romans.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A few cultural bits might be useful
going into playing this class, so, in no particular order of
importance we have-</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Head Hunters. The Celts are
head-hunters, they take the heads of important or valiant enemies as
trophies. They would preserve them and bring them to feasts and talk
to them, there was also a trade in prestigious heads.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Torc. A torc is a neck ring, and it
has some religious significance to the Celts, they were known
throughout the Celtic world and were important enough to a warrior
that he would rather not go into battle without it, even non-Gaesatae
warriors wore them, and it is said would put them on before armor or
weapons in an emergency situation. They were generally made of as
precious a metal as the warrior could afford, examples have been
found in bronze, copper, silver and gold (although primarily bronze
and gold); and as ornate as possible. It is also possible they were
used as a form of currency. In any case, every Gaesatae should have
one.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fearlessness is somewhat religiously
motivated. Celts were said to be fearless in battle because they were
certain of their afterlife. An account I read spoke of warriors
making deals to pay back debts to each other in the next life if they
died in battle. Their fearlessness is such that they accidentally
disrespected Alexander the Great when he asked them what it was such
great warriors as themselves feared, expecting the answer to be some
idle flattery like “you alone my lord”, instead they answered
that “they feared only that the sky above might fall”, which is
to say “nothing really”.
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The head is the seat of “personhood”,
this may be the motivation behind head hunting.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
All right, the bullet points about the
Celts and their culture done, I guess you can see why the Romans saw
them as barbarians. We have inherited much more of the Roman attitude
than the Celtic one about most things in our culture.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Completely untested, and no doubt with
balance issues, I present the Gaesatae</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
EXP Table</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Level XP HD Class Ability</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
1 0-2,250 1d8 A</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
2 2,251-4,500 2d8 </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
3 4,501-10,000 3d8 B</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
4 10,001-20,000 4d8 </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
5 20,001-40,000 5d8 C</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
6 40,001-90,000 6d8 </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
7 90,001-150,000 7d8 D</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
8 150,001-225,000 8d8 </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
9 225,001-325,000 9d8 E</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
10 325,001-650,000 10d8</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
11 650,001-975,000 10d8+2 </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
12 975,001-1,300,000 10d8+4</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Notes-
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A – All Gaesatae have a base
encounter movement rate of 45'/round when unencumbered. The Gaesatae
has a natural unarmored AC of 8. The Gaesatae gets double the normal
bonus to AC from DEX (13-15 +2, 16-17+4, 18+6). When the Gaesatae
lands a killing blow on an opponent, they immediately get another
attack on an opponent within their weapon range, up to as many
opponents as the Gaesatae has hit dice.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
B – Gaesatae base encounter move goes
up to 50'/round unencumbered. When a Gaesatae defeats an opponent of
equal or greater level/hit dice and takes a round to remove it's head
as a trophy, they cause fear as per the 1<sup>st</sup> level Cleric
spell. This only applies to humanoid creatures with heads, creatures
that are immune to fear will be unaffected. Natural AC increases to
AC 7.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
C – Natural AC increases to AC 6.
Base encounter move increases to 55'/round unencumbered. 1d4 1<sup>st</sup>
level Gaesatae approach to become apprentice/followers, treat as
retainers with a base morale of 10.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
D – Natural AC increases to AC 5.
Base encounter movement rate increases to 60'/round unencumbered. The
Gaesatae now causes fear (as the 1<sup>st</sup> Level Cleric Spell)
in all opponents of 4HD or less within 120'.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
E – Natural AC increases to AC 4. May
establish a Stronghold and attract followers of appropriate classes
(Fighters, Gaesatae, Druids, Bards).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gaesatae must have a minimum STR 12,
DEX 12 and CHA 9, they have no Prime Requisite and do not receive XP
bonuses.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gaesatae can use any weapon, but they
eschew the use of armor other than a shield and helmet. They must be
unclothed save for wearing a torc to use any class abilities.
Gaesatae save as Dwarves of equivalent level.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I suggest using this generator for names<a href="https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/celtic-gaul-names.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> here</a></div>
<br />The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-13429476722850383152020-03-18T13:49:00.000-04:002020-03-18T13:49:27.739-04:00I Am The Historical D&D Guy<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwMjOc39b4olIUgfkJ6LPtXzODYh12p8Wmdia5KKDiN3Q0tk1Y60MiCrNoTATTXPi_gkPmfTchwMKBngN7LNNWFsRqgDvivIf5FEt1Th-8bn8adRW5wwXbGj3LIWpTmSMKCkzclFn8ZfBu/s1600/Druidic+Ritual+color+by+Mercvtio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1138" data-original-width="1600" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwMjOc39b4olIUgfkJ6LPtXzODYh12p8Wmdia5KKDiN3Q0tk1Y60MiCrNoTATTXPi_gkPmfTchwMKBngN7LNNWFsRqgDvivIf5FEt1Th-8bn8adRW5wwXbGj3LIWpTmSMKCkzclFn8ZfBu/s320/Druidic+Ritual+color+by+Mercvtio.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I am the historical D&D guy. I
realized that today after watching Jason Graham's FB Live video this
morning, and I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before. I went
to college for history, it's always been a passion of mine. My living
room is encased in book cases, most of which are filled with history
books (most of the rest are RPGs). On some topics I have a better
selection of works than the universities I attended.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
My wife Mona used to say that my D&D
campaigns come with homework, and it was only half a joke.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When I prep a new campaign I almost
invariably read some kind of history, even if it's just a “daily
life” kind of a thing. I create new equipment lists as a matter of
course, keeping the gear to a specific time and place that fits my
historical/cultural theme, and there is always a theme, whether I
planned it or not.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes my stated goal was to immerse
the players in a campaign setting modeled on a historical culture
completely. I started doing that before the 2<sup>nd</sup> edition
AD&D HR series arrived on the scene, my first “Viking”
campaign predating the Viking Campaign Sourcebook by maybe a year or
so, I don't remember when it came out, but my Viking campaign started
in September of 1990.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I can't stop myself from making pseudo
historical settings. My longest running D&D setting “Garnia”
(created circa 1982, long before I went to college and studied this
sort of thing) was essentially a “what-if” you took groups of
people from earth and planted them on a fantasy world. It started
with ancient Celts, a pan-Celtic religious movement really, started
in northeastern Gaul by a Druid Seer that saw the coming of the
Romans and the destruction of their culture and way of life. In the
late 1990's I ran a campaign set on earth during that time, the PCs
were essentially early converts to the cause, being from the tribe
where the Druid resided, the Boga-Treveri (who I made up as an
offshoot of the historical Treveri tribe). They wandered Gaul
attempting to unite the tribes into a single nation to avert
disaster, as well as spread the word to the rest of the Celtic
nations. I don't remember all of the characters now, and the
campaign notes are long lost, but I do remember one of the PCs was a
Druid that studied under the Druid Seer that had made the prophecy,
another was a half German warrior bard.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I created Ostschild for a random group
of D&D players I threw together, it was set in a mythical kingdom
in central Europe, it's king was an elector in the Holy Roman Empire,
the entire place colonized by Frankish warriors from the period of
Charlemagne to hold back the hordes of the Elf-King who was invading
from the Fairy realm in the east. There's more to it, but I did that
for a campaign I started as “straight” D&D with B1.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I used to think I was the Oriental
Adventures guy, but even there the hodgepodge of D&Dism, fantasy
and east Asian culture needed refinement for me. I turned to history
to make it happen, then Japanese samurai films, then their historical
novels, manga and anime. OA has always been, more or less, feudal
Japan for me, probably because of OA1 being such a good sandbox to
run. OA1 “Swords of the Daimyo” is set in Kozakura, Kara-Tur's
fantasy Sengoku Jidai era Japan analogue.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Most of my D&D games tend to be
fairly low magic, more gritty-realistic than the high fantasy that we
usually see in D&D. Most of my players avoid playing magic using
characters too, I don't know if they are reading subtle signs I am
sending out, or if old school D&D just has too great a reputation
for being hard on Magic-Users. Like EGG, I assume that people are
going to want to play the fighting man, the hero, you know? But I
don't think I am projecting my bias onto the players.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Anyway, I am good with being the
Historical D&D Guy.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now, on the contest front- I have
already received one submission, and it's pretty good. I do need to
add an end date for submissions though, so I am going to say April
15<sup>th</sup>, Tax day here in the US (and my late sister's
birthday), so it's easy for me to remember. Midnight US Eastern
Standard time April 15<sup>th</sup> for submissions, just like taxes.
</div>
<br />The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-74944458997828590202020-03-16T09:43:00.000-04:002020-03-18T14:27:24.297-04:00Poll is Closed – Celts Win!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENOs89-Kw6fM4d_QQ3pzD4gOUiyyjg9dOiqppFb4LFXBxJqnaB1Z0N6pde2gIygRuQ33TswCnQM06ioUB8yxE1rZY3tYW4pJ_tMoInSiKj_ENaocyfJiS8zMKf5HKt9MyrWpgMMk2CO6S/s1600/Celtic_War_God.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENOs89-Kw6fM4d_QQ3pzD4gOUiyyjg9dOiqppFb4LFXBxJqnaB1Z0N6pde2gIygRuQ33TswCnQM06ioUB8yxE1rZY3tYW4pJ_tMoInSiKj_ENaocyfJiS8zMKf5HKt9MyrWpgMMk2CO6S/s320/Celtic_War_God.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Cool Todd Lockwood art I found on the internet to set the mood.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I closed the poll this morning and
“Celts” was the clear winner among the proposed themes, with
roughly 50% more votes than it's closest competitor “Norse”. The
people have spoken, so the fairly broad theme of Celts shall be the
theme of this short adventure design contest. Given that my long
running “Garnia World” campaign has a Celtic theme, these
adventures could prove quite useful to me personally, and I hope that
they will be equally valuable to the rest of the community.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I am still working on prizes, but I am
thinking the grand prize may well be a copy of the green cover AD&D
2<sup>nd</sup> edition historical reference series “Celts Campaign
Sourcebook”. I'll see what else I have here and update you all.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I am thinking I will make the
submissions available, after the contest, for free on DrivethruRPG,
unless those of you that submit entries specifically ask me not to. I
had similar plans for earlier contests, but never got around to it,
as I had not set up a publisher account there yet.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Adventures should be short, no more
than 10 pages, including any maps or art. Adventures should be
compatible with TSR era D&D or their retroclones.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Adventures should have a Celtic theme.
I understand this covers a broad swath of history, so I should limit
it to ancient or medieval, but I also think it might be pretty cool
to see an adventure set in the Scottish highlands around the time of
the Jacobite rebellions, maybe featuring Bonnie Prince Charlie as an
NPC? So go where your muse takes you, head-hunting Celts vs. Romans
in a darkly magical version of ancient Gaul, to King Arthur's knights
of the round table, to the Easter Rising of 1916; and that's just
historical fantasy, feel free to take us in other fantastic
directions with the Sidhe or the Fomorians.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Send entries <a href="mailto:williamjdowie@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">here. Before midnight on April 15th 2020.</a></div>
<br />The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-40537171703388922612020-03-14T13:29:00.001-04:002020-03-14T13:29:22.074-04:00Stonehell Dungeon and an Adventure Design Contest<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK25p-luT9_H72PSRVP_3IevJbuT15P9hnbBu3qFVwifNDhLG4y0i5uUDB1rsqrG7yQX16wLUooYlmokN4s42ne_UfbRuRwLDXLuEWpYtyFC9u1m_FzKibRJ0oWLHdG2OBBUJjtgoF1kN7/s1600/89179446_10222249364604653_4320294086784319488_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="960" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK25p-luT9_H72PSRVP_3IevJbuT15P9hnbBu3qFVwifNDhLG4y0i5uUDB1rsqrG7yQX16wLUooYlmokN4s42ne_UfbRuRwLDXLuEWpYtyFC9u1m_FzKibRJ0oWLHdG2OBBUJjtgoF1kN7/s320/89179446_10222249364604653_4320294086784319488_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A cool bit of Erol Otus Art to set the mood.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So lately I have been running an Old
School Essentials (B/X) campaign centered around Stonehell Dungeon.
We're 10+ sessions in, have had several PC deaths along the way, and
about half finished with the dungeon's first level (the north half).
I created a pretty half baked new campaign world for it, just a
nearby town to rest and resupply at, with a steady flow of
Meatshields created help to hire on. Essentially dungeon/town. Kind
of Keep on the Borderlands inspired.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I am not going to lie, it's a tad
outside my comfort zone, and I keep forgetting to do some standard
megadungeon stuff, like track torch/oil use. I also need to start
restocking the dungeon some in the cleared areas. I have been running
overland/political adventures with smaller locations and dungeons,
mostly using AD&D for a long, long time now, and that's how I am
comfortable. I am still getting used to the more frail characters in
OSE (B/X), and the save or die poisons are somehow also a bit of a
shock to me (that's killed a few PCs and NPCs now), despite their use
in AD&D as well. Maybe I have been relying on using my own
material for too long, and subconsciously avoiding the use of
poisons?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have traditionally preferred to use
my own settings and adventures to run games, so running any canned
adventure is going to be a bit of a challenge for me. They make me
less certain somehow, like I am always thinking I missed or forgot
something, and sometimes it's true. I have occasionally screwed up an
encounter, or missed a locked door (or added one) or any of a number
of other minor things here and there when running other people's
adventures over the years. The one page dungeon format works pretty
well for me, what with all the relevant information being right
there, and being pretty close to how I write stuff for myself to run.
That said, my stuff could never be run by anyone else, my adventures
are more like notes used to trigger my own memories, and I change
things on the fly to fit what we're doing or because I got a better
idea in the moment pretty often. Plus sometimes I just make stuff up
along the way, I have gotten pretty good at things like turning a
random encounter in to something that seems like an important planned
encounter, and random lair generation in my head on the fly.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Anyway, that's what I have been running
lately, Stonehell.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I do have a contest coming up here on
the blog though, and I am running a poll to see what the theme will
be. There's a poll in the Facebook Group running, if you don't have
FB just comment here on what you'd like to see and I'll add the votes
here to the poll tally. The poll choices are Celtic, Norse, Roman,
East Asian (China/Korea/Japan), Mongol, Norman/Crusader, Greek,
Egyptian, Gonzo D&D, and “Straight up D&D (No Theme)”.
You can also add a category to the poll if you like, suggest it here
and I'll add it there too, Voting through the weekend, I'll do the
final tally Monday morning; vote for your favorites, but no more than
three please!</div>
<br />The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-61656254128165061312020-03-13T21:07:00.003-04:002020-03-13T21:07:39.664-04:00A world building questionnaire.<br />
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
spotted this on the Facebook Group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/bxdnd/2632363057043811/" target="_blank">Dungeons & Dragons B/X(Moldvay/Cook/Marsh)</a>, posted by a gentleman named Jarrod Crough. I am
posting it here lightly edited and with his permission.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>A
world building questionnaire.</b></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Are
the PC's:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Average
people rising up.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Exceptional
individuals destined to greatness.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The
cream of crop...natural leaders and legends yet unknown.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Other:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>What
is the ratio of normal people to arcane users:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">10:1
everyone knows a wizard.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">100:1
there are a few in town.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">1000:1
there are a few in the country.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">10000:1
few and far between.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">100000:1
rare and unusual.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Other:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>How
many divine channelers (clerics) are there:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Those
who dedicate themselves to the divine reap the rewards.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Only
the pure and pious are touched by the divine.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Conduits
of the gods are rare and mysterious.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">There
is no divine, white magic instead. AKA the Final Fantasy route.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Other:
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The
PC races:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">A.
Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">B.
A plus Gnome, Half Orc.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">C.
A plus B plus Dragonborn, Tieflings.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">D.
Anything goes.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">E.
Just Human. Aka The Conan route.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">F.
Other:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>How
does a Wizard learn his craft:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Master
and apprentice.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Arcane
Schools.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Hard
work and experimentation.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Secret
societies and covens.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Other:
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Race
as Class or choice:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Race
as Class.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Choice.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Both.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Other:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>How
common are Dragons:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Common...seen
one fly over head yesterday.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">I
hear that there is a dragon north of here...couple of weeks travel.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Legends
say that Treogg the Red lived in the mountains during my
grandfather's years.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">You
are mistaken, dragons are myths, stories to frighten children.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Other:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>What
is the greatest threat to the civilized peoples:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The
hordes of evil humanoids, Orcs, Goblins, and Giants.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The
old, evil powers in the beyond.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The
foreign power and their foreign ways.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Greed
and decadence of the "civilized" people.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Other:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Who
built these dungeons and ruins, enchanted these items:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The
ancient peoples, before the great dark times.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The
unknown precursors, be they evil or good.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">We
are unsure, legends say…</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Other:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Can
you buy magic items:</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">A.
Potions from an alchemist. Scrolls from the scribes. Expensive but
needed.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">B.
A plus enchanters can make some of the weaker items.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">C.
A plus B plus the great enchanters can make anything...at a cost.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">D.
PC's can make them with the rare materials and time.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">E.
No you can't.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">F.
Other: </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Honestly
I think this is a pretty cool little worksheet, and it asks mostly
different stuff then Jeff Rients' did.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384121608336516305.post-65666153982802189972020-03-11T14:37:00.000-04:002020-03-11T14:37:08.847-04:00New Contest Here<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8NhsE50gAT1Q_C1ljc5HQ9IbHx3hJB8fbV9a6q7KD0kRew-WVQHgxa8YYTz5wjb8T00M8wj_Ll9K0v8LyjuVVCjivTDu3HqNwtYGWUsfYXby8DYW82L_ykrfAta5Hdj4jU3CqxopIi_h/s1600/Steppe_Warrior001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="1150" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8NhsE50gAT1Q_C1ljc5HQ9IbHx3hJB8fbV9a6q7KD0kRew-WVQHgxa8YYTz5wjb8T00M8wj_Ll9K0v8LyjuVVCjivTDu3HqNwtYGWUsfYXby8DYW82L_ykrfAta5Hdj4jU3CqxopIi_h/s320/Steppe_Warrior001.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's been literal years since I ran a
themed adventure contest here, some were super successful (by my
standards anyway), some less so. I have a bunch of swag here to use
as prizes, I haven't sorted any out, but will probably base them
around the adventure theme.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Which brings me to theme. You all know
I like to run with a historical fantasy adventure theme. We've done
Vikings, Romans and Mongols, just off the top of my head. Should I
repeat an older theme? Or come up with a new one? St. Patrick's Day
is right around the corner, so maybe a Celtic or Irish theme?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Format should be short adventure, I am
thinking just a few pages, but I know some of you need a little extra
space to stretch your muscles and really get an adventure out, so
maybe a hard limit of 10 pages? Including maps and art.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I guess I'll put a poll up on my
Facebook Group I set up for this blog <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/449909335758230/" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />The Great Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18342783210750664992noreply@blogger.com0