Sheep Stampede

Last night our game concluded with us returning from the elven forest. We were taking our time traveling a country road when we felt the ground begin to tremble. I thought maybe it was anhkheg or maybe a bulette, but the countryside looked too peaceful to have those monsters terrorizing it. There was a farm to our left and a ridge to our right. From over the crest of the road a farmed came running screaming "Stampede! Stampede!" A herd of sheep charged down the roadway.

Being the mighty adventurers that we are we pulled off the road and were letting the sheep pass. Then two children came down off the ridge and into the road. They stood there petrified and helpless. Rusty Battle Axe put the first group down with a sleep spell and shouted "Count yourselves!" I followed with another sleep spell putting down much of the herd. The few that remained grazed.

The farmer thanked us and asked how we were able to stop the sheep. Rusty Battle Axe put his hand on his hips and said, "We just pulled the wool over their eyes." He chuckled. The farmer laughed as he kicked the sheep to awaken them. A good time had by all.

It smelled of a Harn encounter and I confronted the DM. "Was that a Harn encounter?" He mumbled and coughed before admitting, yes, yes he did roll on another Harn chart. I knew it.

Dungeon Map

I've been focusing on developing adventures during the past few weeks. This corner of the blogosphere has become one long episode of "The Housewives of the OSR". So I'm sticking to rolling dice, making stuff up and adventuring with friends on Monday nights.

The map above was developed by none other than
Mr. Rob S. Conley. He said I came up with the idea of this map and I thought he had either way I think its a very cool map. The dungeon room entries 1 and 2 are for this map. I plan to have it linked on the side of my blog and post the a room or a couple of rooms at a time until its done.

Please feel free to swipe this map and make your own adventure with it. It would be interesting to see what others would come up with. Have a great Monday.

2. Dungeon Room

The second entry in my dungeon room entries. I'll be adding the overall map that I am working off of tomorrow.

2. Hellstone Doors: The cavern walls and floor is worn smooth by the small stream running through the center. Double doors are set in the eastern wall where the wall turns from a natural cavern to worked stone. A demonic visage is engraved across both doors. A skeletal hand grips a thin metal rod stuck in the demon's eye.

The doors are made of hellstone coated in a white limestone that is chipped and cracked. The red veined black rock radiates heat so the doors will feel warm to the touch. The small rod is the key to release the complex locking system built inside the door. The rod will funnel life energy from the key bearer at the rate of 5hp/round. When a total of 50hp is taken within a day the doors will open.

Trying to bash the door in will result in the limestone to fall away revealing the hellstone. In this case anyone who touches the hellstone will take 2-20 points of damage. If a player is reduced to 0 hit points or below he will need to make a system survival shock roll. If the player fails his roll his spirit is consumed by the hellstone. This player cannot be raised from the dead, resurrected, reincarnated or any spell that affects the spirit.

A Politically Correct Weapon

The Sword of Fairness (cursed item)

The Sword of Fairness is cursed so once a player wields it in battle he may only use this weapon in combat. A Remove Curse or Wish spell must be cast to remove the curse of the weapon.

The power of the sword is in its ability to gage the ability level of the character and his opponent. If a 2nd level fight is going against a 7HD creature it will act as a +5 sword. If the character is 8th level battling a 1HD creature is acts as a -7 sword. The pluses and minuses apply to both to hit and damage rolls (a minimum of 1hp of damage).

An additional quirk that can occur with a Sword of Fairness (5% of the time) is it can grant or reduce the number of attacks a character can make. Normally, a 3rd level fighter is able to attack 3 times against below 1HD creatures, but if the creature only gets one attack than so does the fighter. Or if a 1st level fighter goes against a troll who usually attack 3 times per round then so will the 1st level fighter.

A Petition to Have Chgwiz Return

This is a simple blog, a selfish blog in some ways, but I want one of my favorite bloggers return. I don't know any details. Don't want to know. I might not be the right person to do this, but I'm doing it anyway. I just want Michael back to blogging. His blog was one of the first blogs I got hooked on and one of the first people who commented on my blog. So if you enjoyed his blog sign my electronic petition.

1. Dungeon Room

Groggy as hell Tuesday morning blog. If the font is blurry its because that's the way I typed it. Here is a small offering, a dungeon room in one of the adventures I am writing. Have a good day everyone. Or as the old Amish guy I used to know would say "Every day is good. Try missing one."

1. Fungi Cavern: The cavern is filled with various types of fungi. One mass of fungi reaches from floor to ceiling. A badly dented helmet lies by the large fungi growth.

The fungi growth gives off spores that if the player stays in the cavern for more than one turn he will need to make a saving throw or fall asleep. If the player falls asleep they will need to be physical jarred (doing at least one point of damage) to be awoken. While the player sleeps the fungi will grow on him. Within a month the player will be completely covered. The fungi will slowly consume the player at a rate of 1hp/day.

Slicing through the fungi is very easy, but this increases the spores that cause sleep. Within several of the small growths are rat corpses and one dog. In the large fungi is Owen, a 3rd level fighter. He has been sleep for two weeks. He is down to his last hit points and will die in a couple of days. The fungus has not affected his equipment.

If a player hacks through the fungi they will also find a tinderbox, a single set of tin dinnerware, a money belt with 12sp inside and one steel gauntlet.

The Real Reason Why Mages Hide in Towers

Most think Mages seek isolated towers to hide their magical secrets. There are very few secrets left. Magic is a known thing now. It is no longer what does the other mage have, but more how that mage can use what he has. You have a horde of spells, big fricking whoop, so does every other wandering mage. The look like school girls carrying around tomes too heavy for them to carry. So secret knowledge is not it.

Maybe they to cast dark rituals that would get them strung up, burned and castrated. Maybe, but the good mages also seek the solitude of a giant phallic structure. So though dark rituals may be an answer it is not the top answer.

The top answer is mages don't want to be asked continuous dumb questions. To be slowly picked to death by requests. A mage of great power can be humbled by a peasant who knows nothing of the inner workings of magic.

Simon of the Long Magic Missile has killed three rabid trolls that bashed the village wall into splinters and tore a few villagers into tiny bits for easy chewing. Jack the Farmer approaches Simon and asks, "You dun gud. All the fire and all. How yun spout it out yer hand without the burn? I burn my hand." He raises his left hand and looks at it. Then looks at his right hand and raises that one. "Put me hand right in a pot of boil'n water. Scream I did. Can you make me pig, Myrtle, big. Festival come'n and all."

At this point Simon runs into the forest and impales himself on sticks. If only he had an isolated tower.

Those uneducated in magic thing magic can do anything. That magic has no structure. All you need to do is want it to happen and it can. Jack's reasoning if Simon can blast three trolls to ash why can't he make his pig big or make it rain or make gold fall out his ass. I guess those would be gold nuggets. Though a mage may be able to do some of the requests it wouldn't be enough. The requests would multiply and become more extravagant.

Mages wish isolation too keep their sanity. Evil or good. A horde of needy peasants can bring down the most powerful mage.

Behind the GM Screen : Dice Rolls

I was reading an interesting blog over at Stargazer's World about whether a GM's dice rolls should be secret or out in the open. In his experience he has been like most of us, a GM rolls dice behind a screen. But in the article he talks about building trust with players by rolling out in the open. The following statement is about a GM who rolls openly for the group.

"There a trust between players and GM and when things go bad, the GM knows that he did mess up the balance of the encounter. In a game where you roll secretly as a GM things often go out of hand, but since nobody notices when you fudge the rolls, you get away with it. There’s no way to improve your GMing skills that way – at least not that aspect of the game."

Since I come more from a Sandbox campaign background balancing encounters in not the problem of the GM. They are what they are. If low level players think they have the ability to take on a group of trolls that is their choice and not the GM's job to whittle away most of the trolls to make the encounter a bit more fair. The players have a choice to get the heck out of there. I think this is a difference between 4th edition where they balance encounters to give the best challenge without making it impossible for the characters. Which is pretty interesting how they have the challenge ratings set and I've got no problem with the system. But since I play in an OD&D version sandbox campaign, 1st level players can accidently walk up upon an angry dragon. First level jerky anyone?

As for not improving your GM skills in that aspect of the game. I can see his point, but I disagree. During combat I like showing my players my dice rolls. I think it adds excitement. There is no fudging of the dice. Everyone gets into it and tries to cast the evil eye on all my rolls. But when a player is detecting lies, searching for secret doors or searching the room to roll open at this point does a disservice to the players. If they fail their secret doors search then a second player might continue to search until they know they have succeeded by seeing the roll and then move on. Ideally, your players would move on regardless of the first roll, but most of the time they won't.

I don't think by concealing your rolls your players will distrust you as a GM. Most of the time it is easy to tell when someone is fudging the dice, for or against. The GM is responsible for running the adventure and as players you know whether you trust a GM or not. Just because a GM may roll in the open there are several other ways they can cheat players. So if you don't trust your GM from the beginning than why bother?

When rolling behind the screen it's not to hide the roll, but to add to the experience to the game.

I'm Up to My Eyeballs in Visions

I've been thinking about all the different visions in a fantasy game setting. The first mention that I know of was in the original White Box, Monsters & Treasure. The goblins get the distinction, they (goblins) see well in darkness or dim light, but when they are subjected to full daylight they subtract -1 from their attack and morale dice. Simple and to the point.

Let's move onto AD&D. Here we find Infravision, the ability see heat radiation. Infravision has 60' range, but some creatures have a 120' range. Any light source spoils Infravision. Then there is the mention of Ultravision, the ability to see in the darkness as well as normal people see in the light.

4th Edition D&D there are three variants.
Low-Light vision can see normally or bright and dim light. But in darkness they still can't see. Darkvision lets creatures see normally regardless of light. Then there is Blindsight or Tremorsense, they can sense creatures regardless of the conditions including invisibility.

Swords & Wizardry has Darkvision. What I find interesting in this case is the elves have darkvision, but dwarves do not. Hmmm. OSRIC has Infravision. HackMaster has the standard Infravision and Ultravision.

Then we have Castles & Crusades, the champ with four different types of visions. Deepvision, the creature can see in total darkness, but things are seen in shades of gray. Twilight Vision, can see in moonlight or torchlight can see as in normal light and has the ability to distinguish colors. Darkvision is pretty much like Deepvision, but can see as normal sight. And the last one is Dusk Vision, they can retain the ability to distinguish color as dusk. These seem redundant to me.

Pathfinder has Darkvison and Low-Light Vision which allows a character to see twice as far. This seems to make the most sense for me.

So after spending way too much time going over the differences here are some of the conclusions I've developed. I never saw the reason why an elf would get infravision or any race for that matter. Pathfinder's version seems to make the most sense. Elves (half-elves are included in this) can see twice as far as normal and find the minute details of things easier thus locating secret doors easier. And Darkvision for dwarves and any other subterranean races. For my campaign I don't see the need to have more than these.

Infravision Questions

I've been working on an adventure and a big part of it is zombies and skeletons in a mine. Now the question I pose is would infravision 'see' these undead?

I'm leaning towards no because I think they would take on the temperature around them, thus making them nearly invisible to infravision. I'm curious to what others think.

And I guess while I am on the topic do you think infravision would assist in finding secret doors and/or concealed doors. In this case I am thinking it would. If there is a difference in temperature then the outline of the door would be seen. Unless you have some master craftsman hide the cracks.

Just thought I would put those questions out there. It's Monday again. Monday after daylight savings always sucks. But I will try and stay positive. It is gaming night and I am now 3rd level.

A Moment of Lightness

I thought I just post something short about the tone of games. Many of the games in recent history indulge in the doom and gloom of the world. It makes for better gameplay because I am definately not a fan of sunshine, rainbows and unicorns. But, a well paced campaign should have moments of levity. Moments of laughter and fun. There will be times when the players have just trudged through enemy territory and delved into a dungeon. When they return with their backpacks dripping with gold they will be assulted by every thief, conman and taxman in the region. But once in a while its good to have that place or moment where the players can relax. Where they can make friends that aren't adventurers. Just the local bartender who knows their favorite drink, a village that built a home just for the characters for when they come to visit. These can enhance the gloom by giving moments of kindness. Like in the movies everyone is giggles and smiles right before something really bad happens.

Calculate Your Own Attributes Old School Style

I came across this funny article while I was leafing through Issue 8 of Dragon Magazine. I love how Brian calculates wisdom.

So, You Want Realism in D&D?
by Brian Blume

We at TSR have heard several people express a desire for a system which gives more realism and variety to the method for determining the natural abilities of player characters in D&D. After minutes of exhaustive research, we have come up with an optional system which is designed to replace the old method of rolling three dice for each of a player’s abilities. This system is guaranteed to make a player character conform more to the abilities of the actual person owning them and will provide a great variety in these abilities from person to person.

STRENGTH — To determine strength, go to a gym and military press as much weight as you possibly can. Divide the number of pounds you lifted by ten; the result is your strength rating.

INTELLIGENCE — To determine your intelligence, look up the results of the most recent IQ test you have taken and divide the result by ten. This number is your intelligence rating.

WISDOM — To determine your wisdom, calculate the average number of hours you spend playing D&D or working on your D&D Campaign in an average week. Subtract the resulting number from twenty and this is your wisdom.

DEXTERITY — To determine your dexterity, go down to the track at the local High School and run 440 yards. Subtract your time in seconds from eighty, and the result is your dexterity rating.

CONSTITUTION — To determine your constitution, figure out the number of consecutive number of months you have gone without missing a day of school or work due to illness. The number of months is equal to your constitution rating.

CHARISMA — To determine charisma, count up the number of times you have appeared on TV or have had your picture printed in the newspaper. Multiply this number by two, and the result is your charisma rating.

In order to try out this system, I tested it by figuring my own ratings.
The results are interesting (I think?).

STRENGTH - 8
INTELLIGENCE - 12
WISDOM - 19
DEXTERITY- 4
CONSTITUTION - 9
CHARISMA - 14

Now you have to go figure out your own stats. All us old timers all tried to estimate what we would be in D&D terms.

The Dragon Said What?

Standing at the edge of the rushing creek I thought I could make it. It didn't look too wide. I'd easily jumped over the other part of the creek. I'll just take a few more steps before I jump. *splash* Lots of water. Smashing into my face. Can't breathe. Ow, that was a hard rock. Ow, that was a really hard rock.

*gasp* Laying on the shore. Wait. No I am in a dungeon and its dark. Really dark. And since I am a S&W elf and not an AD&D elf I can't see crap. I think I popped a lung and broke my eye. The pain. Healing potion. *Ahhhh* Much better now.

My two fellow party members with names I have difficulty saying, came splashing my way. My head is still ringing as they talk. Wait. That's not them talking. Ah oh. It's talking like my father. Crap, its the dragon the goblin told us about. I'm only 2nd level. Why a dragon. I'm so close to 3rd level. I really want to cast 2nd level spells even though I don't know any.

Now the one whose name I can't pronounce is talking to the dragon. He's cocky. He's not going to make it to 3rd level. Maybe I'll take a step over here just in case. What? Dragon wants our help? What a minute, didn't he sit on his last master? The body is still there. This ain't good. He whose name I can't pronounce is walking up to the dragon. I have a crossbow. I'm not even sure if it's loaded.

He's going to unlock the collar the dragon is wearing. He's so dead. At least I won't have to learn how to pronounce his name. Sarvald, I think that's the human's name. Is asking the dragon questions too. Why am I not asking it questions? I don't have a question. *click*

The silver collar falls to the floor. The dragon roars and I accidently shoot the crossbow and the bolt dissappears in the darkness. I quickly reload it and stand there as if nothing had happened. I nod at Sarvald and strike my coolest elf pose. Dragon spews fire on the ceiling. I wonder if he can only do that once a day?

Those two ask another question each and then the dragon flies off. It said we could have its treasure. I'm still looking at the guy it was sitting on. That couldn't have been pleasant. But there is loot to have and to be the last eyes to look upon the treasure means your left with copper that's a pain in the ass to count.

Whoa. What was that. I feel tingly. I made 3rd level. Oh, I am so casting 2nd level spells next session.

Quality Levels for Items

I've always liked the idea of having different quality levels for weapons, armor, clothes and pretty much everything else that can be made. For example GURPS keeps it simple (yes that's right they keep this simple) they have two levels of quality that make a weapon a better. A fine weapon will get you +1 to damage where a very fine weapon will get +2 to damage. Slap your hands together and you are done. In a product I bought recently, Goods and Gear: The Ultimate Adventure Guide, has five levels of quality. The highest is Masterwork, then Sovereign, Standard, then you start getting into the lower end with Inferior and finally Shoddy.

One of the main reason I like the different levels of quality is the economics of it. In a world where monsters roam freely the wars are waged regularly there will be a premium on weapons and armor. A young warrior may have to settle for an inferior sword or used armor. If you go through low level dungeons and take a look at the loot often times the weapon the bandit or goblin is using is worth many times more than the coins in their pockets. In my campaign I have scrappers in all the larger locations. They are like a used armor and weapon store. When an adventuring party comes in they will buy the metal by so much per stone. Most of the weapons gathered by the party will be melted down and remade. While some of the other weapons may be good enough to resell. The players often get more coin from the scrap they sell.

Another reason I like the quality levels is that it adds a value to the craftsmen themselves. If you go over to Stabber's you get good stuff, reliable, nothing fancy. If you go to Slasher's he makes great swords, but his knives are not balanced for throwing and so on. It gives you a crunch element that you can add to your shops. As a GM you can into as much detail as you want in this, but just to have a minimum layer of quality levels adds a lot to the game.

And the last reason I'll give, because I am running out of time, is magic item creation. All those +5 swords of awesomeness, but no fly out of a mage's butt. They needed to be made by a master craftsman. This can add another element of acquiring the right person to build the item before it gets enchanted.

I'm late gotta run. Don't think of it as Monday, think of it as 4 days before Friday.