Why AD&D?

So we played AD&D yesterday. We've been planning this for a while, and originally scheduled in March but had to roll it back due to scheduling concerns. Even after doing that we lost 3/8ths of the planned group due to scheduling issues and cascading problems. In my Felltower game, this is a non-issue. In White Plume Mountain, it was more significant - we were doing a one-shot or two-shot, not a campaign.

In any case, though, AD&D 1st edition. Specifically, pre-Unearthed Arcana 1st edition AD&D.

Why?



Why AD&D?

When the idea came up to take a session (possibly two) and play White Plume Mountain, as-written, I had a couple of ideas:

- run it with AD&D 1st edition

- run it with a retro-clone like Swords & Wizardry

I wrote both ideas in an email and hit send, but honestly, by the time I hit send I knew the answer was "AD&D." Why hand out copies of S&W, explain the differences, re-calculate the ACs of monsters for Ascending AC (or point out how to do descending AC in S&W), re-do saves, re-do monster stats, etc. when we could just play AD&D? Why go retro-clone when retro is sitting right there?

Plus, as I've said a few times, AD&D is my native gaming language. I grew up with it. It wouldn't be too hard to get back into it. Just a refresher on how the system works and I'd be good to go.

It wasn't exactly that simple.

The AD&D DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE isn't exactly laid out or written with quick reference in mind. Rules are buried in all sorts of places. Pages in the PLAYERS HANDBOOK refer to things ahead sometimes and to previous things other times - and details for something you choose on one page are often on another. The index for the PHB is in the DMG, and entries in the TOC and the Index aren't always taking you to that specific information you need.

It's kind of a mess. Good stuff, and it generally works, but it's a mess. It's like finding information on someone else's cluttered desk.

I just reveled in it. Any weirdness, oddness, or silliness that came up I generally just said, "Like it says in the book."

It took a while to make sure I read all the things I needed to read, and I made sure to look things up instead of assume I remembered them. I read every monster and spell and magic item in the book. Re-read the module a few times in order and out of order. I made note sheets and crib sheets for magical items in the party. I put in my homework.

Why not GURPS?

Because much in WPM rides on specific notions being true that are not in GURPS. Most foes not using magic - that would be a more trivial issue in GURPS. Cheap-and-easy buff spells ("We just cast Levitation and Resist Fire on everyone and then go down the hall.") Area-changing spells. And fights with terribly serious consequences for being hit yet which lopsidedly favor numbers. None of these really would give the same feel. Things would have the same name, but lacking "Should we use out one Fireball spell here?" it wouldn't be quite the same. Take that from someone who routinely converts and plunders AD&D modules for GURPS - I don't think WPM would match the feeling I wanted to get back if I'd done with 3d6 instead of 1d20.

Why no Unearthed Arcana?

Simply put, because S2 White Plume Mountain pre-dates Unearthed Arcana. Once you factor in d12 HP double-CON bonus barbarians, weapon specialization, higher expected stats across the board, routinely lower AC *(full plate, not plate mail), broad access to new spells not planned for in the dungeon's design, and race and class options greatly expanded, you get a different game. I'd need to sit down with WPM and modify it. More of certain monsters, since fighters would be expected to have at least 3/2 attacks, usually 2/1, and have +1 to +3 to hit on top of superior stats. Magic-Users would have access to a wider variety of damaging spells. We'd have cavaliers and their weapons of choice, barbarians with their intra-party issues and physical prowess, and races with special powers beyond what is in the PHB.

Me, I like all of that stuff.

But it's all stuff that came after WPM. To make WPM challenging, I'd need to change it. I didn't want to change it, I wanted to run it as written.

On top of that, the players would have a very large variety of choices. Up from a handful of races and classes to a large variety. Lots of min-max choosing about weapon specialization. Which race are you, and which am I, and how will that work out if we play together?

So I kept the party back to where you'd start back when I started, with three books on hand - the PHB, the DMG, and the MONSTER MANUAL. It kept it simpler for all of us.

If I ever pull this kind of thing again with a post-Unearthed Arcana module, I'd absolutely break out UA and use it.

Rule changes?

I'll go over these in another post, along with character generation.

But in short, I didn't change much.

We did ditch:

- grappling/overbearing/pummeling in favor of a Dungeon Grappling-based system. It didn't come up in the first session.

- the aging rules. I dislike these because there is seemingly no base case - once you use these every character has to modify their stats based on current age, and what you rolled is never experienced in play unmodified.

- the Helmet rule. I just assumed people have helmets. That rule did point the way to how we were always supposed to handle split-AC monsters, though.

- random height and weight. I don't even think that's for PCs, anyway, but it could be. I didn't care.

We modified:

- encumbrance. I mostly based it on armor encumbrance (DMG, p. 27) with modifiers.

- initiative. I used an OSRIC-influenced stripped down version that worked really well. Unlike back in the old days, I used segments and it played out better than I'd expected.

. . . and that's about it that I can remember changing. Everything else was by the book, even when it did weird stuff. Yes, we even checked for Keen Eared Individuals. No one made the roll.

How did it play?

Generally well. People adjusted right away to the quirks of AD&D. We did a lot of rules lookups, because as easily as I could make a ruling we all really wanted to know what it actually said. That made for a lot of fun, when we'd hit lines like, "Leather armor +1 is usable by those characters permitted to wear this form of armor." So those permitted to wear it can use it? Those not permitted, then, can't? Helpful. Heh. We chuckled a lot over the effects of Potions of Growth, how harsh ghoul paralyzation is (duration, uhm, never specified), the magic-item destroying Scroll of Protection from Magic, the oddly specifically aimed Wand of Negation - all things we hadn't had to deal with in many years.

At the same time, it could be hard to adjust completely. No defense rolls means taking damage is routine - but in AD&D, healing it isn't as simple as "time and energy" like in GURPS. A bad roll - like the guy who rolled minimum HP healed on a Cure Serious Wounds - can dramatically change your upcoming options. You can't expect a fighter to hold people off unless they keep missing (and Parrying is there, but not a very good choice),

AD&D is a good system. It has so many moving parts, though, and so many special cases with special rules, mixed resolution mechanisms, half-explained ideas mixed with overly-explained ones, etc. that it isn't exactly smooth and easy. Often important information is hidden in some corner - like what to do with the 2nd through sixth repeating 20 on a hit table, or the infamous helmet rule - yet profoundly impacts how the game is played. But still, it was a lot of fun. I remember what I miss about it, and some of what I don't.

It had been over 30 years for one player, over 25 for another, and probably around 20 or so for me since we'd last played AD&D. I'd played Swords & Wizardry online, and I guest starred in a single session of 1st edition AD&D back in the 90s (and probably rolled one die, once - it was a talk-heavy session of an ongoing game where the PCs had no immediate goal to accomplish). I hadn't GMed AD&D since my high school UA-era campaign. Yet it all went quite well. And it was enjoyable enough that in a few weeks we'll see if a fresh group of PCs can't reinforce the two survivors and retrieve Whelm and Wave and get them out of the dungeon.

I liked it enough that I might do this again after WPM, maybe with some other module I have that won't play with quite the same feel converted to GURPS.

AD&D Session 1: White Plume Mountain (Part I)

So a while back, my players and I had this idea that we might consider giving White Plume Mountain a spin. Not with GURPS, which would change the challenge in significant ways, but with AD&D. So we pulled out the three hardback books and made characters like it was 1979.

One special request - NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS PLEASE! I'll moderate them all because of this. My players have mostly played nothing of WPM except what they did today, and we're going to do a Part 2 and try to finish the delve. I don't want them to have to avoid the blog for weeks, skip the summary, or anything of that sort in order to avoid learning what's possibly ahead. I also don't want to change the adventure.



Characters
Faolan McDermot - Human Druid 8
Kamora, Lama of the Lioness - Human Cleric 7
Rockford - Dwarf Fighter 6 / Thief 6
Urf Nightsoil - Elf Magic-User 7
Wolfgang Reinhardt - Human Fighter 7

The PCs started outside of White Plume Mountain, clutching their copy of a bragging poem by someone claiming to be Keraptis, a wizard from some 1,300 years ago. They were weeking Blackrazor, Whelm, and Wave for their owners, variously described as important and wealthy collectors (and in Blackrazor's case, probably protectors keeping it from being used.) Their horses and campaign gear was stashed in Dead Gnoll's Eye Socket along with their henchmen and hirelings, and they headed into the Wizard's Mouth and cleared the muck over a trap door. They pried that open and climbed down a corroded metal ladder to a water-covered, muck-covered tunnel steaming and wheezing with vapor from the geyser-cored mountain.

The party was very careful, probing ahead with a 10' pole held by Rockford, flanked by Kamora and Wolfgang, backed by McDermot and Urf Nightsoil. They traveled slowly thanks to a foot of water (with algae floating in it) over the floor. Also, the water slowed them to 4" move thanks to a heavily-laden cleric.

They reached a wall of force ahead of a three-way intersection and a gynosphinx squatting the water. She told them she could take the wall down and let them pass if they guessed her riddle. She recited it, and they answered - Kamora got the answer out first, but at least two other PCs were only a split-second behind in calling it out. The gynosphinx took down the wall, and let them pass. Urf tried flirting with her, but to no avail.

They decided to head left, figuring they could grab Blackrazor first, since they had a fighter who could use it to help them recover Wave and Whelm.

They probed along and found a submerged pit. They dealt with that by hammering in a spike in the wall, stringing rope to it, and sending the druid swimming across with the rope tied to him (he had a Necklace of Adaptation so he wasn't worried about sucking in some water.)

They reached a corridor lined with copper plates. Investigation and Detect Magic didn't tell them anything, and some careful probing found no trap triggers. They quickly found it was heating up metal! They decided to just make a run for it down the end. Those without metal armor got scorched and took some damage - those wearing plate mail took a lot of damage. Kamora paused to put Fire Resistance on herself, which cut the damage down a lot in the long run. They slogged to the end, Kamora trailing. Urf's Bracers of AC 6 burned him badly, and Wolfgang's plate mail hurt him. They reached the end, and a secret door opened and eight ghouls spilled out to attack them in a confused point-blank melee.

This almost become a TPK right here. Three PCs got paralyzed as Wolfgang kept missing easy to hit rolls, PCs got slashed and bitten, and Urf tossed off two Magic Missile spells but split them up. Kamora rumbled up badly injured and tried to turn undead, but Keraptis's magic forestalled that and he was forced to melee. In the end McDermot transformed into a bear to maul the ghouls, Urf went down to 1 HP (he was at 6 and took 5 on multiple hits!) and fled the fight to hurl darts at the ghouls. He nailed every hit with the darts, MrDermot clawed and bit the ghouls. All eight went down, leaving both McDermot and Urf at 1 HP and everyone else paralyzed! (No turning? Unfair. Fun, though)

I ruled ghoul paralysis lasts 1d turns and rolled a 3. The PCs quaffed potions and sweated out three wandering monster rolls before the others could move freely again. They healed up more, using up all of their healing spells(!) and most of their healing.

(The players just started laughing about how they'd gone one whole room and been defeated. Then they moved on.)

They climbed some stairs out of the water, and found a door. Everyone failed their door opening rolls, so they resorted to a Knock spell off of a scroll.

Next up, they found a room with two pits full of razor-sharp yet rusty blades flanking and edged with frictionless floors, walls, and ceilings. They eventually lit up a bullseye lantern to see the far wall, and shot some arrows down to confirm what they saw. The arrows went through - illusionary wall? "That's non-standard for a frictionless pit room," said Rockford.

They tried a Potion of Flying but it would not work in the room (again, unfair but fun). So they eventually sent McDermot across the room in bald eagle form to check the far side, then ferry over a rope, spike, and hammer. He shifted back into human form and hammered in a spike and tied off the rope. They climbed hand-over-hand using the frictionless wall to slide along the wall.

After that, they moved further into the dungeon and found a T, and turned left. They made it to a door. Kamora cast Augury and asked what would going beyond that door mean. "Great risk, but that which you seek is beyond it." So in they went.

They found an inverted ziggurat with alternating levels of dry and wet, with giant crayfish, giant scorpions, sea lions (merlions), and clipped-wing manticores.

They backed off and send in McDermot to talk to the manticores. After all, they are intelligent and McDermot speaks manticore (great choice by someone who had never even seen the cover of WPM before the game.) He negotiated a peaceful safe passage by the manticores and their aid to get revenge against their evil master that clipped their wings. Unfortunately, this was a lie - the manticores were charmed and just lying like crazy (they're lawful, but they're charmed and pledged to their evil master and just tried to convince food to come to them.)

They found this out when they decided to get down to the bottom by having Wolfgang drink a Potion of Growth and stepping down the dry levels with Invisibility to Animals on while the PCs clustered the monsters near them by standing on the edge of the top level. He carried McDermot down, but as soon as he put him down the manticores attacked. McDermot got mauled and Wolfgang nailed with some spikes. Wolfgang managed to pull McDermot out of the level but they took spikes and lots of damage. Rockford shot one twice with his light crossbow, taking some spikes in return (they shot really well, given the range penalties). McDermot, though, was taken to negative HP by spikes and dropped. With everyone clear, Urf tossed a fireball down into the put for 29 damage. (Wolfgang and Urf wanted to start with that approach, by the way). That badly wounded the manticores - the big one failed to save but had plenty of HP, the other two saved and managed to hang on to life. The glass for the merlion level mostly melted and shattered, pouring water down. A Magic Missile spell told for one of the manticores and wounded another, and bow fire from Wolfgang and crossbow fire from Rockford finished the other.

The PCs brought Kamora down and she cast Dispel Magic on a force wall in front of the door. The water forced it open and it began to rapidly go down. Wolfgang ferried the others down and they spent some time shooting the merlions, killing two and blocked the others from flopping over to kill them.

They moved down the corridor exposed by the opened door and found another door. They listened and heard nothing, so they opened it up.

Inside was a sumptuously appointed room with a doughty halfling warrior inside. They spoke with him. His name was Quesnef, and he'd lost a bet with "the master of this place" and had to guard "his treasure" for 1,001 years. He'd been there for centuries, and he was really bored. He told them they could put the druid on a nice divan to rest (since he had been below 0 HP, and was incapacitated despite stabilizing bandaging), and chatted with them. They asked about Blackrazor. "I can't talk about that." "Can you tell us if it's here?" "I really can't talk about it." "Can you tell me where it's sheath is?" "Clever," said Quesnef. "I'm a wizard, too," said Urf.

So he said, "It's under that divan." They went to look, Urf grabbing a scroll case and Wolfgang eyeing a jeweled scabbard with a bastard sword in it. Rockford decided to take advantage of everyone looking that way to fade into the shadows with his Cloak and Boots of Elvenkind. As they went for the items, Quesnef said, "I can't let you leave with that. Sorry about this." He suddenly split into four mirror images.

Urf dropped the scroll and yanked out his Wand of Negation. Rockford hid more. Wolfgang grabbed Blackrazor. Quesnef tried Charm Person on Wolfgang, who resisted and grabbed the blade. Urf shot at Quesnef's left hand, thinking his walking stick cast the spell - he got his ring and cancelled its effects. Kamora cast Prayer.

Quesnef responded with a Cone of Cold that hit McDermot, Urf, and Wolfgang and did 29 damage. Even with saves, that killed McDermot and Urf outright, taking both to -10 HP (or less, even). Wolfgang would live with a save, but missed it and died, also below -10 HP.

Rockford backstabbed Quesnef and did solid damage (14, I think) and Kamora hit him with his mace. Quesnef cast Darkness and swiped Kamora with a claw a moment later. Claw? Oh no, claws, big, darkness, cold ray . . . ogre magi? Yep. In the darkness, despite all of the penalties, Kamora nailed Quesnef twice with a Staff of Striking and Rockford cut him with his sword a few times. That was it - they managed to kill him.

They gathered up the loot - money, jewelry, a healing potion (which Kamora insisted Rockford drink), and Blackrazor. Oh, and some magical plate mail. They took the lot, stripped the gear off their friends and stuffed their bodies into a Bag of Holding, and thought about what to do as they searched for a secret door out - no, they had to go back the way they came.

(At this point, it was getting late. I asked if we should wrap this up, or if people wanted to play a second session with reinforcements. They voted the latter. So I said, if you get to the sphinx and the intersection, we'll pause there and pick up in another session.)

They used Urf's Potion of Polymorph (Self) to turn Kamora into a Roc and fly out of the ziggurat, and then waited out the duration. Then they went back to the frictionless room and ferried the gear across. No wandering monsters turned up.

In the heated hallway they tried to drag their armor but it burned through their cloak. So they resorted to kicking, pushing, and otherwise prodding their gear back. Again, no wandering monsters.

They walked confidently to the sunken pit, never mentioning it. I announced they'd fallen in, but Rockford's player said, "We didn't see the rope? We were looking for that rope along the wall." Ah, yeah, fair enough, they had left it there to get back and as a specific clue.

They went past the pit hand-over-hand, hanging on and dragging themselves along the wall. They just limped back to the intersection where the sphinx sat . . . and I finally rolled a 1 on the d12 for wandering monsters. A pair of bugbears came around the corner. We rolled a 1 for the PCs to be surprised - 1 segment of surprise. The bugbears rushed them. Rockford's Reaction Adjustment negated the surprise segment on him, but Kamora took a hit from a spiked club. They melee'd the bugbears. Kamora managed to badly wound one and Rockford wound his, then Kamora took a couple of hits and dropped at 0 HP. Rockford dueled the last two, killing one quickly and then slowly fighting the other before finally landing a pair of minimum-damage rolls - but that was still enough to kill it.

We'll pick up there next time, with Kamora in bad shape and Rockford wounded but steady . . . and with a load of henchmen who'd been waiting upstairs coming down to help finish the job.

Notes:

We originally had three additional players set to play today. Then within 24 hours, our host had to drop out because he was needed at work. That took out a 7th level dwarf fighter with 18/something high Str. We shifted to another player's house, but that was too far away for another player, who had an event he was running. That took out a 6th level human paladin. Finally, because things came up, we lost a drop-in from an occasional player of ours and lost an elven 5/5/6 F/M-U/T.

With all of that happening 24 hours out, it was too late to really adjust by giving out more levels. I tossed in some extra magic items (a few more potions, and another magic weapon.) Still, it meant the PCs were really on the bottom edge of the power curve for this adventure. I'll post the details of character generation, magic items, etc. as we go.

I didn't use a GM screen today. Well, I did, I lay one down flat and used it for the charts. I concealed monster HP but otherwise rolled things in front of everyone. It was a lot of fun doing that, although had I had a screen keeping things organized would have been easier.

47 turns in the dungeon, and one wandering monster roll on the very last one I made. Heh.

We really enjoyed this. It was fun - we laughed at, and with, all of the odd quirks of AD&D. Tables for everything, often with different sub-systems for things on them. Roll high to hit, low for thief skills and hearing. A 1 on a surprise roll is better than a 2 but a 3+ is what you really want. Spells for one class might work exactly like those of another but with radically different casting time, duration, range - or have the same of those but different effects. Crossbows being slower and radically weaker than any given bow. Whatever. We just went with it.

Generally the players played with good skill. They made some newbie mistakes - such as spreading out Magic Missiles too much, for example, and not ganging up in melee when they could. But they adapted immediately to AD&D play and made lots of good decisions and played with care. Bad luck hurt a few times, and the errors they made were compounded by the fact that WPM is stacked against them. All in all, though, a lot of fun.

I'll post up character stats (and how we did chargen), player impressions, and other notes over the next few days.

Game day today!

It's finally game day again (and then not again for a few weeks - Easter, tickets to an event, family events for others, etc.)

I'll just give a little hint - one of these Jeff Dee illustrations from classic AD&D modules is related to today's delve. Heh, heh, heh.



But which one of these super-heroic scenes is it? Rufus and Burne of Hommlet? The giant monster* on the Isle of Dread? The manticore of White Plume Mountain? The drow vampire and his succubus lover of the Vault of the Drow?

You'll have to wait for the summary to find out.

* I did just watch Shin Gojira again last night, so maybe there is a connection?

Weather in the Dungeon

So Dungeon Fantasy 16: Wilderness Adventures covers weather (p. 30-31) for wilderness adventures.



For reasons unclear to me, Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons doesn't mention weather for dungeons. Let's fix that oversight. This is based on the rules in DF16, but weather is less changeable in the dungeon so the ranges have been modified. Weather in the dungeon is fairly stable; roll once per delve (for short delves), once per level (for large or mega-dungeons), once per area (for superdungeons), or once per 1d hours.

3-5 – Perfect. The tunnels are clear, the usually noisome corridors, creaky doors, damp air, etc. is absent. All Prospecting, Cartography, Tracking, and Perception rolls are at +1. Reduce lighting penalties by -1 out to the normal limits of the light source.

6-14 – Passable. The usual creaks, groans, moisture, drafts, etc. are present. No effect on travel speed or skills.

15-16 – Bad. Even dungeons have nasty weather. Drafts - natural and unnatural - abound and seem to blow into the delvers at all turns. The flagstones are slick in spots and rough in others, either naturally or due to mold, mildew, blood, and bits of grue (or actual bits of Grüs.) All Prospecting, Cartography, Tracking, and Perception rolls are at -1. Sound and smell-based Stealth and any Climbing rolls are penalized as well. Light sources are unnaturally dimmed from strange mists, flicker in the drafts, or just seem drained of brightness by the supernatural darkness around the delvers. Light sources project out to 2/3 of their usual distance.

17-18 – Dire. As above, but the dungeon is hostile to you in a seemingly personal way. Black or grey mists obscure vision, flagstones are slick or feel uneven or warped, drafts abound and occasional real winds blow down corridors. Travel speed is only 75% of usual (round down, and all footing is treated as Bad Footing - and normally bad footing has its penalties doubled. Light sources project out to only 1/2 of their usual distance, and double the penalties beyond that. All of the above skills are at -2.

During Dire weather, one additional side effect will occur. Choose one of the following or roll randomly:

1 - Supernatural Storms. The Mana (1-3), Sanctity (4-5), or purify of Nature (6) drops significantly. For either mana or sanctity, roll a further 1d, on a 1-5, the level drops by one. One a 6, the level drops by two levels. For nature, roll 1d and add that to the existing penalty for the surrounding area, or reduce the level to -5, whichever is worse.

2-5 - Monster Warping. During the weather event, monsters sometimes change . . . roll 1d. On a 1, add two prefixes to the monster (usually distorted, chaos, or berserker plus one other, or two of those); on a 2-4, add either chaos or distorted, on a 5-6 the monster is unchanged. Roll individual or for whole groups.

6 - Delver Warping. The delvers might warp - characters suffer 1d x -5 points worth of additional disadvantages. Choose any, but temporarily missing or crippled limbs, Delusions, Post-Combat Shakes, Wounded (a state which will automatically be visible to all foes), Unhealing, Magic Susceptibility, and so are are especially appropriate. When the weather event ends these go away completely - but the consequences of having adventured while having them will not!

Happy April Fools day. And if you think this isn't useable in play, and that I won't use it . . . then double April Fools on you!

Cardboard Heroes of my monsters!

Check out this update to the Dungeon Fantasy Role-Playing Game Kickstarter yesterday:



That guy on the left appears to be a rock mite. I originally made up the rock mites for Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 for use in my own games. Now, there is an official Cardboard Hero for them, illustrated by Denis Loubet.

How cool is that?

I know you guys who make your own books and hire your own artists have a similar feeling. But it's really something else to go from "I need some kind of rock monster to annoy my players" to "and a game company is making playing pieces with that monster on it" with just some writing in between there. I didn't pull out my wallet and make this happen, and I really didn't let it sink in that:

- I wrote monsters for my own games and then got them published for GURPS DF;

- those monsters made the boxed set;

- the boxed set would include Cardboard Heroes;

- therefore monsters I wrote for my own games would have Cardboard Heroes.

Musing on a fairly-costed Wall of Stone spell for DF

So one thing that GURPS Magic lacks is a good-old Wall of Stone spell. Oh, sure, you can use Create Earth to create some dirt, then use Earth to Stone to turn it to rock.

But what about a single spell that skips straight to the rock?

Let's look at some costs.

Create Earth: 1 second to cast, costs 2 per cubic yard.

A 9' x 9' x 1' wall would be 3 cubic yards. 10' x 12' x 1' (most generic 10' Felltower tunnel dimensions are 10' x 12') would be a bit more than 4 cubic yards, but you could probably round it down and assume it's a little less than a foot thick. So those are 6 and 8 respectively.

Earth to Stone: 1 second to cast, costs 3 per cubic yard. Turning the above to stone would be 9 and 12 respectively.

Total time is 2 seconds, total cost is 6 + 9 = 15 (13 with skill 15 in both, 11 with skill 20 in both) or 8 + 12 = 20 (18, 16).

Fast, effective as a barrier, but pricey. It's also two spells to get off, and a foot of earth isn't necessarily a strong barrier against some forces.

So how to build a combination spell?

You could just make a "Create Stone" spell to simplify it, and because you might not always want a wall.

Making it take a little longer (say, 3 seconds instead of 2) and cost a little less (4 per cubic yard, instead of 2 + 3 per cubic yard) doesn't sound crazy as mutual tradeoffs. Neither does eliminating the "metal" option from Earth to Stone. You essentially combine the steps, spend a little longer at it, and get a cheaper wall. I'd make it Very Hard just because it's a combination of two useful effects.

Create Stone (VH)
Regular

As Create Earth, but creates stone instead.

Duration: 24 hours (DF limits creation to 24 hours)
Time to Cast: 3 seconds
Cost: 4 per cubic yard, minimum 8.
Prerequisites: Magery 2, Create Earth, and Earth to Stone.

Or you can go for a more limited, literally Wall-type spell.

Wall of Stone
Area

Creates a 1' thick slab of stone up to 4 yards tall (excess is lost if blocked by a ceiling, roof, etc.) around the area. Must be created in contact with the ground.

Duration: 1 minute
Time to Cast: 2 seconds
Cost: 4, same to maintain.

That's more like a "circle of stone." But it's shorter.

If you wanted a really flat wall, you could look to the 3e Grimoire and Force Wall and Utter Wall for ideas. Both are per-hex costed and 2/3 cost of the dome version. That would suggest cost 2-3 per hex, say 2, for a Wall of Stone that lasts 10 minutes.

Any thoughts on this? I'm not sure I'll use it, I'm just thinking about allowing what's becoming a regular tactic (create earth, turn it to stone) into dedicated spell for people who want to hurry the process along. I'm not really sure I'm satisfied about the costs and details. But I kind of stall out with those, so I figured I'd post them and let people see what I was thinking up until now.

Lankhmar and Planescape: Torment news

There is a Lankhmar boxed set on Kickstarter for DCC. I'm tempted to jump in, even though I already have the AD&D version from TSR. The DCC magic system really does seem to fit with Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser - magic is dangerous to be on the giving or receiving end of, no one really wants magical items, and it's all about the adventuring now than building up a domain or retiring to own a tavern.



Because of that, all three of the DCC Lankhmar items on RPG Now are on sale for $2 each - roughly 75% off. I'm thinking of getting one just to see how they are for me as a non-DCC player, but I'm not sure which. Honestly if I was going to play a game set in this world, I'd use GURPS, but DCC adventures are generally pretty entertaining. Any recommendations of which one I should get to try them out?

DCC Lankhmar: Through Ningauble's Cave

DCC Lankhmar: Patrons of Lankhmar

DCC Lankhmar: Masks of Lankhmar

I'm tempted by the boxed set, although I'm not sure I need anything - not even the AD&D Lankhmar book - to run a game set there.

There is also an enhanced version of Planescape: Torment coming out, for $19.99. I've played it through, er, three times? I can't see playing it a fourth (I think the third time I managed to do everything that I didn't do the first two times.) But if you haven't, take a look. It's a great game that really pulls you into the story.