Working on Tomorrow's Adventure

Finishing up the adventure for tomorrow's game.  We should have a full party once again.  It's great to have full party.  I'm using the Complete Tome of Horrors to populate my dungeon and its been a lot of fun.  Tweaking and figuring out different ways to present things.  Short post.  Just having fun on Sunday night creating havoc. 

A glimpse at the original Monster Manual II

Look out! A giant crane! I guess a giant crane could be scary, but not in dungeon land. Considering some of the creatures put in the second manual they had trouble filling the slots. Originally, I was going to make fun of the MMII, but I decided that it being Friday I will take a positive spin on it. There are some gems in there we just have to dig around. That means we will have to bypass the entire Mordon section.

Bodak
The Bodak is killer cool. I believe this beauty first appeared in S4, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. S4 had a mini monster manual included. The body count potential these guys can create is scary. Those milky oval eyes glaring out of the darkness as player after player drops to the ground. The Bodaks are a star in the MMII.

Oh boy, just saw stats for a cat. And the Cat Lord. He's just too ridiculous to comment on.

Demilich
Speaking of stars, this skull needs no introduction, star of S1's Tomb of Horrors, the Demilich. This badass requires no stinking arms or legs or flesh of any kind. There is enough magical power in this skull that it can blow a hole in the prime material plane. Oh, it's a 'ch' at the end. Not a 'ck'. So please don't call it a demilick.

Drider
Driders reminded me of a creepier version of the centaur. One of Lolth's creations. As long as they aren't on a spider spaceship. These creatures are primed to have a society built around. The religion is built in.

Wow. There are a lot of bird pictures in here.

Gibbering Mouther
The pictures of these guys screams Cthulhu. That's enough to put them in the cool category. I'm not sure if I ever used them in any of my dungeons, but I noticed during editing of Points of Light 1 and 2, that Rob has used them to represent creatures of Chaos.

Stats for a goat. Not very monstery.

Obliviax (Memory Moss)
I'm probably going to get flack for liking this one, but I do. They are a great trap monster. They sip the memories out of a player's head then casts the spells at the person they stole it from. Now that's fun for a DM.

Stats for a squirrel? Okay, how many of you out there have ever, ever needed the stats for a squirrel? Please raise your hand if you have. The RPG police will need to take away your DMing license. Next thing you'll want is tables for the chipmunk prestige class.

Tarrasque
This is the Godzilla of the MMII. I've always had a great affection for giant reptiles. Plus he reminds me of the critter in Revenge of the Jedi. There is something about having that unique creature, so massive there is little hope to kill it. Impending doom. Inevitable disaster. Whatever you want to call it, one appearance by this guy can alter a campaign world in a hurry.

The last monster in the manual is the Zygom. The penis looking fungi. The picture looks like five naked guys died close to one another.

So this concludes my foray into the forgotten Monster Manual. It has some gems, but they wasted a lot of space with non-monsters and variations of already established monsters. Did we really need the Juju Zombie? My selections are ones I have used to populate my dungeons. I'd like to hear which monsters you used in your campaigns. And one last thing, despite the lack of quality monsters within MMII there was no lack of quality artwork. Except maybe for the penis mushrooms.

Keep the Spaceship Out of the Dungeon

During the past few weeks I've been pulling random modules out of my stack of old TSR modules and other gaming supplements. I found the G series and remembered how much fun it was fighting all those giants. What made the G series great for me was how they were connected. Then the D series, descending into the depths of the underworld and getting, at least for me, my first sighting of the Drow. Again all these were connected and led to finale with Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders. She was a lesser goddess in the Deities & Demigods. Sounded like a great finish to the series, but here comes the part that irked me. She was on a spaceship shaped like a spider. Why is there a spaceship in the dungeon? Why is the dungeon a spaceship? I know there are all kinds of great creatures roaming around inside including Lolth, but why a spaceship. I read the module again and still don't understand the reasoning. The best guess I can come up with is the adventure was on another plane of existence.

Then we have the S series. It starts out with a signature module, Tomb of Horrors. Arguably the best module of all time. A module I believe set the standard. Then onto White Plume Mountain. Did the module make sense, not really, but everyone wanted Blackrazor. Then onto Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. As much as I disliked Lolth and her spider spaceship, S3 just plain pissed me off. After this module polluted the stream every character left their bows at home and picking up a laser rifle or blaster pistol. No need to learn Magic Missile or Fireball, just lob a grenade. I enjoy a great game of Traveler and Gamma World back then as much as anyone, but these modules force fed the technology into the fantasy realm. If you're going to introduce technology have it make sense. Not something that unbalances the game.

I don't think it's too much to ask to keep the dungeons made of dirt, stone, wood, or magical barriers. I like my weapons medieval style. Robin Hood needs his Welch longbow not a laser rifle. King Arthur needs Excalibur not a plasma grenade (but I will make exceptions for the holy hand grenade). So please, oh please, keep the spaceship out of the dungeon.

Welcome to Gothridge Manor

Welcome to Gothridge Manor. My place on the Web to talk about gaming old and new, good and bad and a whole lot of in between. I've been plundering dungeons and razing cities since the winter of '80.

I am placing the blame on my friend Dwayne for causing my 30 year fascination with orcs, liches, experience points and gold pieces. Dwayne brought home this ugly purple little booklet called B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. He didn't know how to play, but seemed really excited to give it a try. We raided the Yatzee game for dice (that's what we called them back then before we knew they were 6ds) and made up rules as we went along. I can't remember how we made characters, but I remember we used the Charisma attribute, rolled a d6 and that was how many followers we got.

On to the gameplay. Since we had nothing but B2 and a handful of six siders we decided that if a 1 was rolled that was a death. If a 6 was rolled that was a wound. Two wounds in one battle and you were dead. This is why all those followers were important. So for the next weeks we were happy throwing six siders. Experience points, what were they? Hit points, didn't need them. Miniatures were tiny candy bars. We had a blast. One night Dwayne would DM, the next night I would DM. Then the guy who he borrowed B2 from wanted it back. Crap.

We found two places in town that sold D&D stuff. The first place I went the guy behind the counter kicked me out of the store because I brought my book bag into the store and didn't leave it by the door. I didn't know. So the next place I went, I crept in and asked the lady if it was okay to come in. She said absolutely and showed me where all the gaming stuff was, which was limited to one shelf on the bottom at the back of the store. It was a hobby store and had a ton of airplane and train stuff. I'd never seen miniatures before. Lead figures with swords and bows, clerics with their arms raised and magic-users with staves taller than them. Oh, and the monsters were very cool even though I had no clue what most of them were. This instantly became my place. I bought my first set of D&D dice here and still have most of them to this day (except for my 12d which vanished in study hall one day).

I had money to buy one thing so I picked out the coolest looking module they had. I ran home to show Dwayne. He was excited also. He'd gone to the other store and had better luck than I did getting in. We showed each other our spoils of the day. Both of us had bought the same module S1 Tomb of Horrors. So for the next few months we took turns DMing the Tomb of Horrors. After that we made a pact to tell the other what they were going to buy.

So began my journey in gaming. Thanks for taking a look around. You're welcome to anything in the fridge, snacks are in the cupboard and the only rule is the last Coke is always mine.