Friday Roundup 10/25/2024

Links for Friday.

- There is an article discussing a book that lets you build classes for B/X D&D.

Having fun with BX Options: Class Builder

There was a dragon magazine article that did exactly this, also with B/X, in Dragon #109, by Paul Montgomery Crabaugh. I wonder how much this matches up with that previous work?

- Undead Handmines. Cute.

- A bit of a look at AD&D's STR scores and bonuses.

A "Dungeons & Dragons" Adventure - Comic Book Back Cover Ad

On the back of one of my comics - ROM: Spaceknight issue #28, March 1982, I found this advertisement for Dungeons & Dragons drawn by Bill Willingham.

As always, these are pretty goofy. Mysterious powers, an easily-scared (and easily-comforted) elf, a dragon-scaring sword, not a lot accomplished. At least there is a dungeon and a dragon.

The great sword Naril indeed. Just bite him, dragon, he's got like AC 4. And nothing more comforting after a red dragon nearly roasts you than relaxing by a warm fire, eh?

Random Thoughts & Links for 5/31/2024

- Want the Battle of Five Armies in 15mm?

The price keeps dropping. From $7995 in 2/23 to $5995 now.

Where is the floor for that thing? It started at almost $13K.

- This Death Race game makes me want to play Car Wars. Not enough to deal with my loophole-loving friends, though.

- Permanent monster paralysis in D&D?

- I made a ruling for my DF game by email, which I'll post about tomorrow.

Hasbro selling D&D IP?

This came up on my news feed:

Hasbro Seeks to Sell IP “DND” and Has Had Preliminary Contact with Tencent

Short version? Hasbro is trying to sell the D&D IP, and Tencent has a line on buying it.

I'm not sure what this would mean for WOTC, the 50th anniversary of D&D, and all of that, if true.

(Editing later: Tenkar has a take on it.)

(Editing on 2/1/2024: PCGamer says that Hasbro says they aren't selling.)

Arden Vul Bundle of Holding

If you want a megadungeon to just buy and run . . . this one is on sale at Bundle of Holding:

$25 for a full megadungeon complete with .png maps for uploading to a VTT seems pretty good. I hadn't really heard of this dungeon before, but I'll thinking of giving it a look. If I can get 4-5 useful ideas out of it, that's worth the price to me. There is a free preview if you want to check it out first, and the maps are always free.

D&D on Death Row

My friend Tom shared this with our gaming group. It's an article about men on death row, playing D&D as best they can while locked up and waiting for execution.

It's grim. But it's good. Any they have better handouts and maps than I've made in years. I make no comment here on the justice system or on the death penalty . . . just on the gaming. It's about the only time I've been interested in reading someone's character background.

When Wizards and Orcs Came to Death Row

I love the spinners to replace dice, the game length (9 a.m. until bed time), and the dedication it takes to keep generating material to play with.

Thanks for sharing, Tom.

OD&D Solo Play link

I have to admit, I have a soft spot for random dungeons with old school delving. Here is an OD&D solo play with both:

Random OD&D Dungeon Solo Play
It's kind of Dungeon Robber but done with dice and pencils instead of a mouse.

Seems fun.

Links for 4/14/2023

I'm away but I queued up some cool minis and rules posts!

- Minis battle - Elves vs. Hollywood Arabs.

- Adventures in undefined terms of art - an early D&D special feature. In this case, Concentration.

- Amazing Judge Dredd gangs - Barbarellas, Fatties, and the Squid Squad.


Bye for now!

Review: How to Defend Your Lair

Time for a review of something I felt had an impact on my gaming. For more reviews, check my reviews page.


How to Defend Your Lair
by Keith Ammann

Keith Ammann's new book is a GM tool to help a GM make NPC lairs better. More logical, more realistic, and based on principles of real-world (and yes, magical world) security practices instead of dungeon and adventure design principles. How would a big bad evil wizard actually protect his spellbooks, or his treasury, or his life? How would the ruthless assassin's guild head protect her assassins, her big book of client names, and her escape route? GM long enough and you can come up with some ideas. With this book you can organize the approach based on real world principles and a sensible and logical approach.

It's very good stuff. The book consists of a look at concentric security all the way from detecting threats to reacting to them, to responses after, and escape when things fail. Patrolling, gathering information, how to secure your front and back doors, etc. - it's all there. And it is sufficiently generic that only a cursory knowledge of D&D 5th edition will be enough to make use of it. You'll learn when mounted and foot patrols make sense, how to arrange your reaction force, what kind of numbers are needed to provide how many patrols in a given time window, etc. It's both concrete usable information and higher-level concepts so you understand how and why.

The end of the book is a bunch of example lairs. They're all good. I won't spoil them except to say that you'll need your thinking cap on to penetrate security on them.
Two things I found less than valuable in the book - interrogation, and value assessment.

There is an entire chapter on how to interrogate people. Interesting, and based on what I've read from actual interrogators, it seems workable and accurate. However, what are you going to use this for? You'd need captive players and a lot of interest in doing one on one questioning of them by the GM to get them to reveal information. In the hands of a player, this might make for more compelling questioning than the usual ". . . or we'll kill you!" threats and poor questions. But I don't see that coming up. So if a GM really isn't going to get to use this, and it's a book aimed at a GM to make NPCs more believable and effective, it's not really valuable enough to justify a whole chapter. Again, it's good stuff, but it doesn't belong.

I'm also a little less sold on putting number values on what is valuable to create a score. The author recommends that for every item of value, you assign a score based on different value measurements - basically how much the possessor values the thing or fears losing the thing. Okay, great. But do I really need to know if something is a 6, or an 8, or a 9? I can see a simplified system working better - rank the things the NPC has in rough order of value. Then just protect them in that order. Don't protect item #3 less than item #1 on the top 5, say. It's an attempt to put a number on a subjective value and do something with that number. It just doesn't seem necessary to get the job done.

How adversarial is it? I'd say, little to not at all. It's not set up from a "GM vs. players" approach, in my opinion. It's more like making the NPCs use the most effective and logical tactics and strategy to protect their lairs. Nothing is stopping you from making the foes easier or harder even as you do so. Or from having NPCs use the wrong tactics because they'd lack the understanding (or personality) to use the better ones. It feels more like making sure the GM is making decisions from a position of knowledge than from a position of opposition.

This book can make a good player tool, as well, if you're not the type to figure out how to run effective fortified-area penetration missions but want to know how. Although the entire perspective is from someone trying to stop penetration, if you know what they're afraid of happening, you can try to make that happen. And detect more easily when someone hasn't figured out their vulnerability!

Overall: I like the book. I'm very glad I purchased it and it is having a positive effect on my gaming. Recommended.

TSR Collector's Items at Noble Knight Games

This is pretty cool - Noble Knight Games has some very rare D&D items.

Included is a 1st printing woodgrain box Dungeons & Dragons set . . . which, if you scroll down to the bottom for prices, is offered for $27,995.00. Yes, almost $28K. I could sell my entire collection of RPG material - all of it, including minis, paints, brushes, really old books, out of print and hard to find editions, etc. - and not get $28K. I'd be afraid to even touch it.

It's all very cool, though.

Check it out here.

Guardian Article by a first-time D&D GM

This article amused me.

‘Why can’t anyone make a decision?’ My first time as a D&D Dungeon Master

It's pretty funny - players diverted by throwaway nonsense, no one able to decide things, players agreeing with and then ignoring a GM suggestion - all the fun stuff.

Also, the author looks kinda like John Doe from X.

I do like to read articles aimed at a more general audience than the hard-core gamers that I write for. Not always, but this is one I got a chuckle out of. And there is a link to a nice site with a trap generator.

Plus the title reminds me of the time my players made the then-11 or 12 year old son of one of our gamers the leader. He'd groaned all day about things being slow, let's do something, let's attack something . . . they made him the leader and all of a sudden he couldn't decide what to do, needed to check the map, wasn't too sure about any given suggestion . . . good times.

Links & Thoughts for 12/2/2022

A few things:

- I have some replies to comments from the last few days, but I don't have the time to make them at the moment. They're coming!

- I have to write out my 10x loot proposal again in a final form. We may not use them, but I answered three questions by email that are answered in the general post on the subject. So that's not a good sign for comprehension. I'll be explicit what would be what way.

It might actually be easier to cut the price of mundane items by 1/10th, actually, and it would have the same effect.

I'll only put it into practice this campaign if we get 100% of the current players to agree on it.

- I'll give these a go. The library had them both:




I need to finish this, first:



Hey, be careful of spoilers! Don't tell me how it turns out! It's looking good for the Americans at the moment!

Just kidding. It looks terrible the whole time, just like Hell in a Very Small Place. Not inevitable or inexorable, but you can see what came coming. I just need to find a copy, somehow, of The Short-Timers. I read a friend's copy but it's overpriced on the secondary market.

- Ah, AD&D. I love your ridiculous complexity. I think of it every time someone tells me GURPS is hard. Hah. I started with AD&D. I laugh at your concept of complexity! Heh.

- Jeff looks at some really old orc minis. I like them.

CRPG Humble Bundle - Baldurs Gate

There is a CRPG Humble Bundle which might be of interest:

Badlur's Gate & Beyond

For $1 you can get Icewind Dale (complete AFAIK) and the enhanced edition of Planescape: Torment.
For $10 you can get those plus all of the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights.
For $20 you can get all that plus Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

I'm still deciding, here. I've played out Icewind Dale, and I'm not sure I'll want to do it again. I would like to try the enchanced version of Planescape. Those for $1 is fine.

Another $9 nets me the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights games. I'd like to try BGII. Or maybe try BG again . . . which I disliked back in the day but maybe it's better or my tastes have changed.

I really want the Pathfinder game, but the enhanced version is $20 right now. I'm not sure "Enhanced" is worth +$10 but I'm leery of buying a plain version when there is a better version out there. And while $1 is throwaway, and $10 is a really good deal per game, $20 is actual money.

I'll break down and get one of these deals, and we'll see which one.

Is it worth waiting on the Enhanced Edition of Pathfinder: Path of the Righteous? Or should I just go for it?

Power Score's look at the D&D Cartoon

Power Score is doing an episode by episode look at the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.

I watched this cartoon growing up. I didn't see all of the episodes - I just didn't get to watch Saturday morning cartoons week in and week out.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't really love it. I was the usual DM for my group and all of a sudden the DM is this weird little Yoda wannabe.

Still, I do remember episodes I really liked (episode 9, with the skeletal warrior, was one), and I watched it as long as it was on.

This look at the episodes is interesting because of that. I probably won't go back and watch the series, though . . . reading this is enough!

Part I

Part II

Episode 15

What's an edition, anyway?

D&D is going to have a new edition. Or maybe a revision of an existing division extensive enough to be a new edition. It's not necessarily clear at this point what will happen or what the company intends to happen.

But what counts as an edition?

Looking at GURPS, it's had a few iterations:

Man-to-Man

1st edition

2nd edition

3rd edition

3rd edition, revised

3rd edition, revised, plus Compendium I and II

4th edition

Officially four editions. But two were so close to each other as to be difficult to easily distinguish (1st and 2nd), or so close that it was just relatively minor changes (3rd, 3rd revised). Or a new but compatible edition in reality but not in same - 3rd revised plus compendia. Others might disagree with how I count - and I wouldn't have counted the compendia as a new edition at the time, but they seem so in retrospect. And I clean missed out on 2nd, so GURPS Update rolled around and I found weirdness that didn't quite line my games up with 3rd edition, since I was still on 1st.

D&D has some of the same issues with counting editions. So does Traveller, to the point that I don't even quite know where I'd begin.

I'm mostly curious if the new D&D is compatiblew with the exiting 5e stuff - there is so much out there. We'll see I guess . . . but to me it doesn't seem clear what's what.

Random Links for 8/20/2022

I was away from the blog (okay, just really busy) for a few days. So let's get to what I read this week that interested me.

- Grappling in 6e.

So, two things:

"D&D One" is on the way, apparantly - here is a link to the playtest packet.

Also, the rules sound interesting, although I'm not sure why you're not at disadvantage to attack a person grappling you, too. Having been grappled, as recently as yesterday, I'll say that it's hard to attack someone who is grappling you . . . more than attacking someone who is not grappling you. But I may be misreading. I haven't played this out. I have opinions but I'm not a D&D player in general, so I won't stick my nose in, in all likelihood.

- Rob took a deeper look at D&D One than I did.

- More weapon skills combinations for DF.

- The Book of Weird. Always read what Matt Riggsby writes.

- This is awesome. Dave's not here, man.

- It doesn't sound like evidence supports the idea of Mongols using silk shirts against arrows. Oh well.

- I do kind of eyeroll internally at Sparta-themed clothing and gear and comparisons that people use to imply toughness. As Vlad says:

"Most people seem to take pleasure in feeling superior to someone. I'm not like that, which pleases me because it makes me feel superior." - Vlad Taltos, in "Jhegaala"

Here is a re-look at a look at Sparta that can explain why.

- Even more electromagnetic firearms - a for-sale coilgun. The host of that Youtube channel has an impressive knowledge of firearms. I've learned a lot (and burned a fair bit of time) watching his videos.

Enjoy these for now!

Lost Tomb of the Bitchin' Chimera!

One Saturday I took a walked to Zipperhead, I met a boxed set that almost knocked me dead!

Somehow, I had no idea there was a Kickstarter for this. As much as we're cookied, tracked, and so on, despite me posting about RPGs, dungeons, Kickstarter, and The Dead Milkmen, I didn't get a glimmer of a hint that there was a Kickstarter for a Dead Milkmen-themed RPG product. I even took a walk to Zipperhead one Saturday in 1999 just because of the lyrics from Punk Rock Girl. I mean come on!

But my fellow gamer, and the person who introduced me to The Dead Milkmen back in High School with "Big Lizard in My Backyard," found out about this. And he and my gamers conspired to get me a copy.

My copy includes maps, a dice bag, dice with the grinning dead cow logo on the 6, and a couple of little extras.

I absolutely want to run this . . . but I think only one of my players would get even 1/10th of the references. He'd get them all. The rest would really wonder about that Wurster kid and why it's a Burrow Owlbear and why there is a Tiny Town. Humor is tough. But this would make a good alternate destination for a Jester Gate.

Thanks for the gift guys!

Random Thoughts & Links for 4/1/2022

Here is some stuff I liked this week:

- Bat in the Attic has a nice idea for multiple attacks for fighters in D&D-based systems.

- I'm out on this one, but Bones 6 is available:

Bones VI Kickstarter

I was in on Bones I through V . . . but I still have V sitting in its box, unopened. I might jump in on this if it looks irresistable . . . but I doubt it.

- There is a revised Tome of Adventure Design in the offing, too. I haven't read the previous versions but Tenkar loves it.

- Have hours to waste? Dungeon Robber is back!

- and apropose only that it's April Fools Day, one of my clients revealed (and proved) she could write left-handed and backwards at the same time she writes the same thing forwards with her right. I'd definitely charge a point for that in GURPS.

Random notes & links for 3/25/2022

Back to the weekly links.

- I saw this article on Warren Spector. Yes, the SJG Warren Spector. Warren Spector

- I was a big fan of John Arendt's "Black City" campaign, which mixed fantasy with ancient super-tech. Now, the Great Khan has decided to launch his own campaign based on the notes from this.

That's pretty cool. I'd be weirded out if someon else was running a "Felltower" game, though. Good God, Y'all! I'd have to consult with "Red" Raggi and Ragnarsson & Raggissons, Attornies at Law and see what my options would be. Heh.

All of that said, fair warning - if I ever run an AD&D or D&D-based campaign, there will be a mix of tech and magic. Why not in GURPS? It's actually easy in GURPS, but GURPS also pretty realistically handles the massive difference in killing power between swords and modern firearms . . . which makes for less "sword and blaster" and a lot more "blaster and more blaster." Also, muscle-powered weapons are a poor choice against robots designed to fight against guns. You can see the hoops you need to jump through in our (on hiatus) GURPS Gamma Terra game. In a D&D game, you just say AC 0, immune to edged weapons, and it does 1d12+1 damage with its laser and you're fine.

Psionics & AD&D & that time we had 2 guys with Psionics

There are things in AD&D I never played with, and simply discarded from the start. Weapon vs. Armor Type, for example, and Weapon Speed.

There are things I played with a bit, but not too much or too long, like the aging rules and training costs. Enough to drop them but not really very long.

And there are things I played with for at least a whole campaign . . . and didn't love.

Psionics is one of those.

Unfrozen Caveman Dice Chucker put up a post about how to roll for psionics in AD&D.

Back in junior high school, I ran a campaing for three friends. They ran a fighter (a samurai, pre-Oriental Adventures), a monk, and a thief-acrobat who eventualy dual-classed to magic-users. The samurai and the thief both rolled successfully for psionics. They rolled up their abilities, and used them a bit. We never got to have any psionic vs. psionic combat, though. They fought a bunch of bullywugs in U2 Danger at Dunwater and massacred the whole bunch with a few Mind Blasts. And promptly stopped using their psionic powers after that.

This was a substantial drop in their combat ability. Having two guys with the ability to toss out Mind Blasts plus use other psionic abilities could have been huge. But they just didn't like them. They didn't use them ever again.

I think that's sufficient for me. No matter how the system looks on paper, the actual players I have that had them didn't find them actually fun. They set them aside rather than use them even when, in later sessions, they were struggling to get by. If I ever do get to run AD&D as a regular thing, psionics won't be part of it for PCs. It's just not worth the complication and they didn't prove enjoyable when we actually had them in play.