Friday Night Links & Thoughts 2/28/25

Busy week, as usual lately.

- Ernie Gary Gygax Jr. - son of Gary Gygax and player of Tenser - has passed away. News on Gizmodo.

- When did 20s become automatic hits? Delta has a look. That wasn't a think when I was playing, has become a meme (as, per Fry, a "widely believed fact"), in the years since.

- A look at loot. A bit math-heavy for my own games but an interesting read.

- Next game is in a few weeks, I think.

Friday Roundup 1/31/2025

Busy, busy week for me, and not for gaming. Here are a few things I did like, though, and some notes.

- Here is yet another look at Appendix N from the AD&D DUNGEONMASTERS GUIDE, with more Gygax commentary on his influences.

Prependix N
- This was the Traveller set I wanted. The bookstore had Starter Traveller and Deluxe Traveller. The first was $12, the second $20. I had $12. I really wish I'd saved up another $8 before I bought the game. I spent a lot of time with supplements that assumed you had the little black books, and nothing I had pointed back to pages in Starter Traveller. I felt like I'd gotten a bit of a broken game, because I could never tell what was missing or different.

Deluxe Traveller

- Mini combat in the Pacific in WW2.

- Game is Sunday, in all likelihood. I hope the PCs can find another gear and win this fight they're in, and finish exploring the dungeon. I expect it's likely to be another split session, though.

Weekly Roundup 12/27/2024

Friday roundup.

- Does a game need something "heavy" to be sustainable? Interesting post and even more interesting comments.

The Fiction Becomes the System for Advancement; Or, Something Needs to be Heavy

- Yet another tiny buried rule - determining if your character is keen-eared in AD&D.

How to Read the AD&D Rules: Keen-eared individuals

If you want to check the rule at home, it's on pg. 60. So is the answer to the question posed in the post, too. Like surprise, this is one of those cases where a 1 is good, a 2 better, and a 3+ sucks. Freaking Gary Gygax, man.

- Game is Sunday. Last game of 2024!

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.

The Brotherhood Complex, organized opposition, and the DMG

The Brotherhood Complex was the site of a full TPK in my Felltower campaign. Literally no one escaped that fight. The PCs ran into organized foes, beat them up a bit, and then lost against a regrouped foe.

Part of this I can credit to Gary Gygax. I was hugely influenced by the DMG as a young gamer. It's one of the two first books I owned - the Fiend Folio and The Dungeonmasters Guide. One section I read over and over was MONSTERS AND ORGANIZATION, DMG p. 104-105.

That outlines a number of scenarios - PCs versus undead in a dungeon crypt, against giant ants in a lair, against humanoids, against a town, against a bandit camp, and against a fortress.

They're all great stuff. Let me quote extensively to show you what I mean:

SITUATION 1 (Sl) is where encounter occurs for the first time, and while the party inflicts casualties upon the monsters, victory is denied; the party then leaves with its wounded, regroups, and returns one full week later to finish the job. SITUATION 2 (S2) is where the party, rested, healed, and ready for action, has now re-encountered the monsters in question. In both situations the response of the monsters concerned will be detailed so you can use the examples in handling actual play.

(SNIP)

EXAMPLE VI: The party discovers a fortress and attacks.

s1. Guards will instantly sound a warning to alert the place. Alarms will be sounded from several places within the fortress. Leaders will move to hold the place, or expel invaders, with great vigor. Spell casters will be likely to have specific stations and assigned duties - such as casting fireballs, lighting bolts, flame strikes, cloudkills, dispel magics, and like spells. Defenders are out to KILL, not deal stupidly or gently with, attackers, and they will typically ask no quarter, nor give any. In like fashion, traps within the fortress will be lethal. As action continues, commanders will assess the party's strengths, weaknesses, defense, and attack modes and counter appropriately. If the party is within the fortress, possible entry points and escape routes will be sealed off. When the attackers pull back, it is very likely that they will be counterattacked, or at least harassed. Additionally, members of the force of the stronghold will track the party continually as long as they are within striking distance of the fortress.

S2. The fortress will most likely have replaced all losses and have rein- forcements in addition. An ambush might be laid for the attackers when they approach. A sally force will be ready to fall upon the attackers (preferably when engaged in front so as to strike the flank or rear). Siege machinery, oil, missiles, etc. will be ready and in good supply. Repairs to defenses will be made as thoroughly as time and materials permitted. Weak areas will have been blocked off, isolated, and trapped as well as possible under the circumstances. Leaders will be nearby to take immediate charge. Spell casters might be disguised as guards, or hidden near guard posts, in order to surprise attackers. Any retreat by the attackers will be followed up by a hot pursuit.

How to Defend Your Lair is a good, modern version of the same.

I absolutely run my foes this way, with the bit about S2 from the bandit camp as well - sometimes, they're just gone. But if they're there, they act like the above. They are fighting hard and intelligently. They won't sit in clumps and let you clear them room by room. They won't let you just rest, recoup, and attack again without a response.

The Brotherhood Complex is such a place. The deeper levels of Felltower - with the "Gith," are the same. The orcs, same. They want to fight and win, and you can't gobble them up little by little without risk. It might take a decisive win and immediately followup; what makes that win decisive depends on their center of gravity and their interests.

The PCs can absolutely smash the place . . . but it's not a "beginner" dungeon anymore. It's not a quick side trip. If it will be done it will take something more than a series of tentative delves. It's not that kind of place anymore.

Friday Random Thoughts & Links 9/8/2023

- I'd only heard a few bits about Yggsburg, a later Gary Gygax publication. I'm curious, for sure.

- I love Grimtooth's Traps, but I sure don't need stats for them as in this upcoming product. They're all comically overengineered and lethal. Stats seem superfluous, if only because that implies you could survive the traps. Dude, if you fall for the Closet of Caltrops or fall down the Amazing Ginzu Chute, just make a new guy and move on. It's that kind of game. But your interest may vary, and you have over 53 days to think about it from today's post.

- Ah, stupid Hit Point Jokes and a great spin on healing - The Order of the Stick at its finest. "So . . . healing just allows for more violence?" That's the basis of dungeon delving!

- Sunday we are playing in Vic's Felltower Adjacent game. Apparantly we've picked up an NPC ally . . . huh. Handsome already covers the "savage violent outsider with a tendency to kill" niche, do we really need another?

- I'm not around Saturday, and we game Sunday, so I can't promise a post until Monday.

Jon Peterson on Polygon on his new book

I saw this on Polygon, because the secret internet masters know what to show me to read while I'm waiting for no-gi class to start:

History of Dungeons & Dragons chronicles the battle between Arneson and Gygax

I'll buy the book when it comes out, as sad as it will be to read it. Gygax vs. Arneson and the Satanic Panic . . . the latter was tough to live through.

Random Links & Thoughts for 9/3/21

Notes and links for today.

- Ever wonder why I approve your comment, and then don't come back and respond to it for hours, or days? Because I have content moderation on, and whenever I have a minute and remember, I go check for comments that need approval. If it's clearly a real person, I approve it . . . and don't come back to read them until I have time to actually think about what's being said.

- Here are minis painted up for B2 Keep on the Borderlands and T1 The Village of Hommlet.

- If anyone wants to buy my core-set-only Bones V set unopened, complete with dice and bases, let me know. I'll sell it at cost + shipping. I'm sure there is stuff in there I want but as I've said before, my time is limited and my eyes and hands just don't allow for painting like I want to. I just don't need all of this.

- I've fallen behind on the play reports for this Judge Dredd game, but I'll make good!

- Ah, Gary Gygax and AD&D, my original game system. Want to do a cool thing? It's extremely hard, it's unfun, and it turns you into an NPC. At best. Enjoy. That applies to running monster PCs, becoming a diety, becoming undead or a lycanthrope, etc. I know all too much of how I run game is best understood in how deeply this was absorbed by me.

Method I for Gary's Birthday

So it's Gary Gygax's birthday, as I was reminded by this Tumblr blog:

Suggested Options for Rolling Character Stats in AD&D

I love this quote:

"Character generation, then, is a serious matter, and it is recommended that the following systems be used."

"3d6 in order" is a legendary hallmark of early D&D, but I came up with Basic Set D&D (3d6 in order, with lowering one stat to raise another) and then right into AD&D. We generally used Method I.

So let's get on with the serious matter of rolling up a paper man for AD&D, using, oh, Method I:
6-4-1-1 = 11
5-5-4-3 = 14
6-6-5-5 = 17
5-5-3-2 = 13
6-1-1-1 = 8
5-5-3-2 = 13

I can put them in the order desired. So let's make this guy a halfling thief!

Str 10 (11 -1)
Int 13
Wis 8
Dex 18 (17 +1)
Con 14
Cha 13

Not bad. With max HP he's HP 6, and has AC 6 without any armor and AC 2 with leather. That's probably survivable.

I could have done a dwarf fighter with 18 Con, a cleric with 17 Wis, a magic-user with 17 Wis . . . I was tempted to make a Str 18 Half-Orc Fighter/Assassin, too, with Con 15 (14+1) and Cha 6 or Int 6 (not bright, but wise and deadly?) So much fun.

Happy birthday Gary.

Friday Links & Thoughts 11/20/2020

Here is another post on the "Gary Gygax Hated Magic" idea.

Was Gary Gygax Afraid of Magic?

Me, I still see this as realizing you handed out too much power without enough limitations and just adjusted accordingly . . . not hate or fear. Just recognition that hey, maybe powerful, fast, easy, reliable magic wasn't the best design decision for long-term play balance?

James Mal thinks we need large groups. Yeah, I got that covered. We might only get nine people this Sunday. I'm kind of bemused by the people saying it's hard to play online with more than 4-5 people. We've had less than 6 only once, and man, that was a rarity. Zoom holds up well and Roll20 is a pain even with 2-3 people, so 8-9 doesn't make it any worse.

I keep losing the locations for stuff like this, so here it is again: The Magician's Ring story, starring Mike Mornard's wizard Lessnard.

The Magician's Ring

It's really very much a Jack Vance homage, with how arrogant the PC is and how conniving the NPCs are. "Such treasures are not for the likes of mere Mediums" indeed.

Sunday is a game day for us, so I've put what little time I have for prep into it. I'm basically spending a lot of time trying to make Roll20 do things so I don't have to do them on Sunday. It would be nice to game in person for a change so I could just draw a map freehand in 5 minutes and put down the minis . . . instead I needed to make pictures, now I need to make icons, next I need to make the map and hope the players go to the spot I think they're going to. It's annoying prep yet critical for this fight. I may enlist one of my players in it if I'm not able to get it all done by tonight.

By the way, big Foundry sale! I wish I could do nothing but buy their minis and sit and paint them. I don't have that kind of time and money. Well, not money to spend on minis, anyway. And I've had some painting issues. So mostly I look at these bigs sales and think, why, yes, I do need gun-armed Zulus and Swiss pikemen and Hundred Years War archers and Victorian adventurers, plus obviously those Greek heroes. And then I mostly move on, because, I probably really don't. But if you do, get them. I've never regretted a single purchase from Wargames Foundry or Casting Room Minis.

"Gary Gygax hated magic." - Did he?

I saw this comment on CRPG Addict's review of Dark Queen of Krynn:

"It seems to stem from how Gygax hated magic so he purposefully made it difficult to survive as a wizard and made magic tough to learn."

This is not the first time I've heard something like this. I responded with a request for a source.

But I'll ask here, too. Does anyone have a quote from Gary to this effect? One from an early player that felt that Gary felt this way?

Magic changed from OD&D to AD&D, but in my opinion it's mostly in adding some complexity (spell components, timing on casting) that provides a mild brake on magic . . . but still keeps it quite powerful and game-shaping and game-changing.

It's also a comment I find hard to square with Gary's most famous characters being magic-users. Not exclusively, but even so, a couple of them have their names all over some potent spells in AD&D.

So, where does this come from? Actual Gary, or something that's been attributed to him in some roundabout fashion?

Persistent Changes & Leveling Up Monsters in the Megadungeon

A great strength of a megadungeon is having a single location where delvers can go and effect changes on the environment. These changes can be temporary - unlocking doors, disarming traps, "clearing" a high-traffic room - but they are often going to be persistent - monsters dead, walls knocked down, doors removed. It's a combination of the immediate and the cumulative. The delvers that survive also change temporarily (injuries, fatigue, etc.) and permanently (gained experience, found gear, death).

So the PCs level up.

I asked back in 2013 if anyone had the monsters leveled up, too.

Clearly, Gary Gygax felt that way:

Gygax on Leveling Up Monsters

So it's not a new idea. Some monsters get more dangerous as they repel attacks just as the PCs do. The question is, do they gain experience from fighting and killing delvers? Or do they gain experience from looting the fallen, much as the PCs? Or purely ad hoc like Gary Gygax did? So many good choices . . .

Gygax & Arneson article

Kotaku put up an article about the history of D&D, and Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax.

It is bound to be a bit contentious . . . it feels like pot-stirring in a way. But if you haven't really delved into the history of the development of D&D, this is a place to get some of that information.

Dungeons & Deceptions: The First D&D Players Push Back On The Legend Of Gary Gygax

TL;DR version? Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson are both responsible for the hobby, and it didn't develop without a lot of rancor and credit-taking.

It's definitely worth reading. I'd also suggest Jon Peterson's Playing at the World, but that's a bit more of an academic look at the subject. I don't meant that as criticism. It's just aiming for telling the whole story in detail, and examining the development of role-playing games overall, not just telling the popular story of Gygax and Arneson and D&D.

And it's worth noting, that if you ever find yourself wondering at the friction, divisiveness, credit-warring, and hate that goes on in gaming and think, "Why can't we all just get along and play games with fireballs and elves?" Well, it was never the case that gaming was free of that. All of that nonsense is embedded in its history like original sin.

Selling Dragons - did it come up in your game?

One thing from AD&D that we never had happen - not once - was selling a dragon.

We didn't have people fight to subdue, either, which is probably the primary cause of not having dragons to sell.

But overall, it's one of those things I found odd. There isn't much of an economy for monsters. A few - mostly ones that can be trained as mounts - have valuable eggs or young. But you don't have a sale value for orc slaves, owlbears you trapped in a cage, that roper you charmed, etc.

But dragons have a standard market value - and it's not even that terribly high. 1d8 x 100 gp per HP. That huge, ancient red dragon that seems to come up in every campaign somewhere is worth a whopping 88 x 100-800 gp or 8800 gp to 70,400 gp. Not low, really, with an average of 39,600. But how high is that when the average gp value of its monetary hoard is a bit above 80,000?

Potentially it's a way to increase the value by 50%. Or realize profits when you catch the dragon out of its lair and can't find it or get to it.

Yet I've never seen it done. I've read about it in Gary Gygax's columns in Dragon magazine, and in the AD&D books, but never seen it done in play.

Just another element AD&D spent a lot of time on that just didn't impact my gaming.

Book Update: Fun with Quotes

Over the past few days, I turned in the quotes for my latest DF book.

I won't say what they are, but I will say I do have quotes from:

Glen Cook - a standby for good quotes, as he paints huge canvases with few words.

Hugh Cook - his book Wizard War is one I've stolen a lot of inspiration from.

J.R.R. Tolkien (from his best work, too. Others might disagree, but they're not writing this book or blog.)

Alexei Pehov - it's tough quoting in translation, but I found a really good one that fit the page that needed it.

Michael Moorcock - he wrote of an anti-hero with a magic sword, in a world headed toward its own Ragnarok of sorts. That's an easy source of quotes. For this one, I knew what I wanted and had to track down the book more than the quote.

Gary Gygax - because it's Gary Gygax. I quote from his fiction, but the DUNGEONMASTERS GUIDE is always a good source of quotes. Especially ones that toss off game-changing concepts in a single parenthetical sentence.

I really should keep a file of pithy, fun quotes. But mostly I keep them in my head, and know where roughly to look for them. This can work well, like the quote I pulled out of a Glen Cook book for this one. The book was on my shelf.

It can work poorly, when I want quotes and realized I'd loaned out Moorcock's Stealer of Souls, most of my early Leiber books, all of the Alexei Pehov books, and more. I got a couple of those back in tine, and David Pulver rode in to the rescue with a quote from another book I was looking for. Steven Brust is usually a good source of quotes, as are Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny, but I had what I needed from the above.

I can't wait for this book to come out.

Random Thoughts and Links 10/19

More random stuff for a Friday.

- I like these guys, especially their evil powers - which makes them more than just a block of stats:

Black Knights


- I also like this here:

Magic - Dungeon Fantasy Martial Artist Spell List

Yes, making combat spell lists for non-caster types is tough. I strained to make the list in Barbarians.


- I haven't really had a lot of time for game prep, due to professional development issues plus spending time on my latest book proposal followup. So we're probably on for more AD&D before more DF. I don't need a lot of game prep, but these days it's not nil.


- Speaking of nil, that's another word I learned from Gary Gygax, back when I learned words like prestidigitation and the difference between i.e and e.g. Along with some made up ones, like dweamorcraft.

Staff of Power (192 charges)

Jon Peterson put up an excerpt of a letter by Gary Gygax with Mordenkainen's stats.

Me, I went right past the stats to he has a Staff of Power with 192 charges. Well, had, he used 12, so he's down to a mere 180. Yowza.

Okay, okay, I know that staves in white-box D&D can have 200 charges. But coming to OD&D from AD&D, it really jumped out at me seeing it on a character sheet. And the Staff of Power is no slouch of an item, it dramatically increased the effective firepower of a magic-user.

The damage of it doing a retributive strike is god-smitingly powerful, based on Gods, Demigods, & Heroes, too . . .

If you haven't stopped at the Tavern lately . . .

I am too busy to write a really solid post, but I am still looking and reading.

Erik "Give me 22 minutes, and I'll give you a post" Tenkar has put up a few worth looking at.

Interested in what ever happened with the Gary Gygax Memorial statue and fund?

Gygax Memorial Podcast part 1

Want to see what my default go-to class is? (Hint: Human fighter.*)


and this patch makes me think we need a Powered By GURPS magnetic car decal.



* Okay, that's a bit more than a hint.

CRPGs based on Gygax's stuff? Maybe.

I saw this article today while I was at work:

Dungeons & Dragons creator’s unpublished work to be turned into video games


So I immediately went to check out Erik Tenkar's take on this. His commentary is probably sadly accurate.

I'd love to see more of what Gary Gygax did. I'd really like to see Lejendary Journeys, even if only for historical reading purposes. But I'm not sure this announcement is really a sign of actual gaming materials to come. GaryCon seems to be great, I found Gygax magazine to be so-so (and it's gone, in any case), and this whole thing just drags on and on.

Gary Gygax on dungeons

Delta's D&D Hotspot posted about Gary Gygax and dungeon design.

Gygax on Dungeon Design

That kind of thing is why I've talked about the differences between writing for yourself vs. other people and the problems of other people's megagundeons.

I do much of the same - map it, put down a minimal bit of information that tells me the important stuff, make up a lot as I go (and note it down, so it stays in the dungeon), and just cross out the stuff that players have changed through their actions.

It's a really good way to go . . . but no way to write an adventure for someone else to run.