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7 feasts and 6 fasts

Friday, December 16th, 2011


“Did you not know that Lord Dillan is also a healer? He has taken the Inner Path, been a disciple of the Forest, with the Seven Feasts and Six Fasts behind him these many years.”
-Andre Norton, Star Gate (1958)

When I saw this as a descriptor of someone’s rank in a religious organization, I thought, “If he underwent a feast or fast every time he leveled up, that would put him at level 14 or higher.” Level 14 is pretty high in any edition: it’s around the time when someone should be world-famous.

The “Seven Feasts and Six Fasts” has a nicely ritualistic sound to it, and it dovetails with D&D spell lists, which already contain Heroes’ Feast and Traveller’s Feast. We just need a couple more feasts and fasts and we have some nice rite-of-passage flavor for clerics: and we have an in-game way for people to describe character level.

You might be able to base a cleric build around this – someone who gets a little class feature every level based on the feast/fast undergone. The actual ability might be on a fixed schedule, or shuffled, so that one cleric gets the Feast of St. Cuthbert ability at level 1 (maces can be used as holy symbols) while another doesn’t get it till level 10.

Holiday project: Come up with some feasts and fasts, along with the mini-power they grant!

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christmas shipping for wandering monster posters, and new project preview

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Last chance to get a wandering monster poster as a Christmas present! I’ll be shipping the last orders at around 5PM on Thursday. After that, I’ll be leaving the country and won’t be able to ship till next year.

Also, here’s an unfinished piece of art from the poster I’m working on for next year. The random dungeon generator from the end of the 1e Dungeon Master’s guide, represented as a dungeon:

The original table:

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a team of iron horses

Monday, November 28th, 2011
Her companion wore black breeches and green jacket and boots. His cloak was black, lined with green, and he wore a sword and dagger at his waist. He sat astride a black, horse-shaped creature whose body appeared to be of metal.
-Dilvish the Damned by Roger Zelazny, 1965
Rod froze, hand on the pommel of his sword; then he dug his heels into Fess’s metal sides, and the great black horse sprang toward the ruckus.
-The Warlock in Spite of Himself by Christopher Stasheff, 1969

Meanwhile, in Aquilonia’s nighted capital, the chariot of thulandra thuu rumbles through the streets… drawn at high speed by a creature which, to a casual observer, might appear to be a large black stallion… but which a closer inspection would reveal to possess a strange, metallic sheen, as if it were carved of gleaming iron.
Conan comic based on Conan the Liberator by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, 1979.

What’s up with swords and sorcery being so hung up on black robot horses? I ran into these three just in books I read this year. Two of these sources predate D&D’s Obsidian Steed.

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4e spells as treasure

Monday, November 7th, 2011

In old D&D, spells were like Pokémon; if you encountered one you’d never seen, you could put it into your collection. This is a time-tested, addictive form of gameplay that I miss in 4e. Luckily, it’s easy to add back in.

4e wizards still have a spellbook, in which they can transcribe more daily, utility and encounter spells than they can cast. If there’s a spellbook, we can re-introduce spell scrolls.

spell scrolls for arcane classes

To return wizards to their place as library-ransacking completists, just add a few scrolls containing daily spells into the next treasure haul. As in earlier editions, these scrolls can be used to cast a spell a single time, or be transcribed into a wizard’s spellbook, permanently expanding the wizard’s reportoire.

I’d allow other arcane classes to transcribe scrolls into spellbooks too: they’d gain the wizards’ ability to swap daily powers, but only with spells they found as treasure.

Rare spells

Since 4e wizards already choose their two favorite spells for every spell slot, it’s hard to get excited about expending your spell repertoire: at best, you’re getting your third-favorite spell. Let’s say that some spell scrolls (20%?) might contain improved versions of spells. For instance, a wizard might find a scroll called “Flame Jester’s Improved Fireball”, which teaches a version of the Fireball spell that does +1 damage per tier. The benefit of such an improved spell is limited to that spell, and might be equivalent in power to that of a feat. Possibilities include:

  • +1 to hit or damage

  • adds a new damage type
  • conditionally adds a condition (for instance, dazes targets if you have combat advantage)

There’s a lot of daily spells, so this opens up a lot of design space for treasure. It also allows DMs to boost iconic but mechanically weak spells like Fireball without having to resort to house rules. I’d even think that a character could find an improved version of an at-will power. Gaining +1 damage to an often-used at-will power would be almost as good as finding a new magic weapon.

Research

With improved spells, we can bring back another staple of early D&D: spell research. If a PC can’t find a specific spell, they can research it. DMs and players can go crazy with rules for spending money on research, libraries, and labs.

To keep non-arcane classes from egtting jealous, they might need ways to upgrade their powers too. I’ll have to think about that.

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magic items Gygax forgot to steal from Zelazny

Friday, November 4th, 2011

But the wearer of the green boots of Elfland may not fall or be thrown to land other than on his feet.
Roger Zelazny – Dilvish the Damned

D&D’s Boots of Elvenkind are supposed to be drawn from Roger Zelazny’s Dilvish the Damned stories. If so, Gygax missed pillaging a few other magic items from the same stories:

Mildin shuddered and fetched her shimmering were-cloak–for she was Mistress of the Coven–and throwing it about her shoulders and clasping it at her neck with the smoky Stone of the Moon, she became as a silver-gray bird and passed out through the window and high about the Denesh.

Obviously a were-cloak lets you change form. I’m not exactly sure what the Stone of the Moon does. Something fey, I bet.

The guards had cornered the slayer. He fought them, apparently empty-handed, but parrying and thrusting as though he gripped a blade. Wherever his hand moved, there were wounds. He wielded the only weapon that might have slain the King of the World, who permitted none to go armed in his presence save his own guard. He bore the Invisible Blade.

It’s hard to know how to stat the Invisible Blade. Does it get a bonus to hit because it’s so hard to parry? If so, how is it different from other magical swords which also get bonuses to hit? Does it allow a thief-like backstab on the first strike?

To be fair to Gygax, he didn’t entirely miss the Invisible Blade. He statted it up, but buried it in near obscurity: in the character sheet of Gellor in the afterward to “Saga of Old City”. In the enworld Q&A he says:

As for the invisible sword that Gellor had, it was not in play in my campaign–not to say I hadn’t maybe placed one somewhere 😉 Aside from its plusses to hit and damage, the weapon allowed its wielder to see any otherwise invisible foe and to attack first in any normal exchange. Of course there was a command word for it to come to hand–pretty hard to locate your invisible sword without that… If it was within range of the possessor’s voice it woulc fly instantly to that own’s hand.

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how to make a werewolf creepy

Monday, October 31st, 2011


“The meat!” came a panted whisper. … He picked up the piece of meat and tossed it outside. It vanished immediately, and he heard the sounds of chewing. “That is all?” came the voice, after a time. “Half of my own ration, as I promised,” he whispered.

“I am very hungry. I fear I must eat you also. I am sorry.”

“I know that. And I, too, am sorry, but what I have left must feed me until I reach the Tower of Ice. Also, I must destroy you if you attempt to take me.”

“The Tower of Ice? You will die there and the food be wasted, your own body-meat be wasted.” …

The white beast panted for a time. Then: “I am so hungry,” it said again. “Soon I must try to take you. Some things are worse than death.”

–Roger Zelazny, Dilvish the Damned

I think that similar creatures in other books – often wolves, perhaps – apologize for their desire to eat the protagonist. Am I thinking of the Neverending Story? Something in Narnia?

Anyway, it’s not a bad trick for making a random encounter feel very creepy and personal, and a little sad as well. Play up the creature’s struggle as much as you want – maybe make it indebted to the PCs, to increase its guilt and anguish.

Ultimately, as much as a PC may feel sorry for such a creature, they’ll have to kill it, now or later; and it will be a mercy killing.

Like so many things in fantasy (and horror), including vampires, this creature’s relationship to the PCs seems like a symbol for some other, more disturbing human relationship. Fantasy handles these layers well. This is one of the reasons I’m not particularly interested in dealing with real-life disturbing issues in-game. Fantasy seems to me like a genre where these monsters are best transformed before they are fought.

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1001 Nights vs King Arthur’s knights

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

I have heard, O auspicious king, that when Ghanim brought the chest to his house, he opened it and brought the girl out. On looking around, she saw that she was in a handsome house, spread with carpets and adorned in attractive hangings and so forth. On seeing bundles and bales of materials and other such things, she realized that here was a merchant of substance, a man of great wealth. She uncovered her face, looked at him and, discovering him to be a handsome young man, she fell in love with him at first sight.
-1001 Nights

Coming from a childhood spent reading about King Arthur, I find the world of 1001 Nights notable for its dearth of knights and lords. In Europe, the male heroes are the nobles – the hereditary warrior class. In 1001 Nights, successful warriors are almost absent. The storybook heroes are merchants.

In 1001 Nights, access to the upper class is gained through business. People with swords are usually among the lowest classes: city guards, bandits, and armed slaves. In that way, it’s closer culturally to us than is Arthurian legend. In the modern USA, rich businessmen are the closest thing we have to a ruling class, and people who live by physical violence – criminals, soldiers, cops – aren’t in positions of power.

Interestingly, while our modern culture is built on a 1001 Nights model, our entertainment is built on a Knights of the Round Table model. Adventure movie heroes are frequently violent strongmen, while non-physical businessmen are more likely to be villains than heroes.

Old D&D editions, with their emphasis on treasure hunting, enable both modes. Like 1001 Nights heroes, and the players, the PCs are after money. They live in a world where once you collect enough gold, you level up and become a Lord. There may be hereditary lords and nobles as window dressing, but the real powers in the world are the nouveau riche, and wealth is primarily in the form of coins (as in 1001 Nights) not land (as in Camelot).

On the other hand, D&D money is collected through force of arms. In OD&D, the XP value of a treasure haul is related to the strength of its defender. If you’re 8th level, and you defeat a lowly 5th-level creature to win a treasure hoard, you get 5/8 of the XP value of the treasure. So in D&D, you’re a violent thug AND you’re greedy. Best of both worlds.

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that 5% or 10% XP bonus is pretty irrelevant

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Old editions give you a 5% or 10% XP bonus for having a high Primary Attribute. You can argue that it’s realistic – naturally talented people progress faster. You can also argue that it’s overkill – most editions already give you gameplay bonuses for having high primary abilities. In fact, though, it doesn’t make much of a difference.

In the versions of the game with XP bonuses, the XP per level generally doubled or almost doubled, at least until high levels (8 or 9). That meant that the 10% bonus was irrelevant most of the time. 9 out of 10 game sessions, the guy with the 10% bonus was the same level as the clod with 10 in his primary attribute.

Is it worth the math busywork of multiplying every single XP bonus by 1.05% or 1.1% in order to level up a session early every 3 months? Maybe. Levelling is pretty awesome.

In my houserules XP system (every level requires 10 XP, every encounter provides 1 XP) the effects of the 10% XP bonus can be duplicated very easily: characters with 16+ in their primary attribute (or whatever) start the game with 1 XP. Everyone else starts with 0 XP. That 1 bonus XP at character creation will have exactly the same effects as the 10% Primary Attribute bonus – the character is always 10% of a level ahead. Except no multiplication.

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buy this OD&D Illustrated Wandering Monster poster!

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

I originally drew this poster for the Gygax Memorial. I sold out of my first run at Gen Con for $10. Now you can buy them for $7.50!

The 18×24 poster contains the complete rules for random dungeon and wilderness encounters in infographic format, and illustrations of every single OD&D Brown Box monster (200+ monsters), including the rarely-used ones like “thoat,” “thoul” and “titanotheres.”

OD&D Wandering Monster poster
Put this on your rec room wall, and you can use it to generate random encounters without having to flip through books, or just stare at it glassily while descending into a spiral of madness.

Price: $7.50 + shipping

Sold out!

This poster is currently sold out, but I’m running a kickstarter to get it back in print, and also to print a new poster, “Random Dungeon Generator as a Dungeon Map”. Check out the kickstarter and help me get the poster back in print!

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dave tarneson

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

I’m reading Dave Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign, since I plan to DM for Dave Arneson Gameday. Having just read the first Gor novel, I’m catching references I otherwise would have missed. Dave wasn’t running a full Gor campaign, but I think it was probably about as influential as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars was on Gygax.

Take, for example, this price chart, in which Gor’s tarns (riding birds) and pleasure slaves are highlighted:

The mysterious “red silk” and “white silk” slave entries are related to John Norman’s lovingly detailed slave caste system (warning: link not safe for reading).

Also note that on Arneson’s chart, which seems to be ordered by free association, the entry after the slaves is “assassin”. In the first Gor book, the main villain is a member of the caste of assassins.

The Assassin class was first introduced in Arneson’s Blackmoor OD&D supplement. It’s hard to tell how much of that book is Arneson and how much is Tim Kask and other contributors, but I think the Assassin is Dave’s work. If Arneson’s campaign introduced the assassin class, it seems not unlikely that that is another Gor-ism.

Reminder: If you’re in NYC, come to Dave Arneson Memorial Game Day this Saturday! Games all day and a panel at 5! I’ll be DMing at 6.

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