Spes Magna Games

Today the topic is favorite deity. Well, I’m Catholic, so I’ll go with, “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”

That said, within the context of D&D, as a player I don’t really have a favorite deity. My first and longest-played character, Lord Jon Korbok, claimed to follow the dwarven wargod, Clangeddin Silverbeard, but that was really more of an excuse for his violence. I’ve seldom played clerics, paladins, druids, et cetera. I did have a 1E paladin. I don’t remember him following a specific deity. The last cleric I remember playing was Zerubbabel Jangle, a 3.5E gnome cleric/rogue who followed Garl Glittergold.

As a GM, however, I definitely have some favorites, especially the Unholy Triumvirate of Erythnul, Nerull, and Hextor. These three were at the heart of many multi-part adventures I’ve run over the years. Most recently, I added Wee Jas to the mix in a campaign that could’ve seen Wee Jas destroying Hextor and absorbing his divine portfolio. Unfortunately, that campaign ended prematurely.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge

Day 5 of the 30-Day D&D Challenge asks me to write about my favorite die or dice. Really? I supposed to have an actual favorite die or set of dice? I don’t know how to write about this one specifically, so I’ll go generally.

My eyes aren’t what they used to be. I’m a bit near-sighted, so I wear glasses for seeing things at a distance. Without my glasses, objects farther away than about ten to twelve feet or so get blurry, and the farther away they are, the blurrier they get. With my glasses on, however, distance objects are clear. Also with my glasses on, close-up objects become blurry. Right now as I type this, my glasses are somewhere other than on my face. (I think they’re in the bedroom.) I can see the computer screen just fine. If I were to get up and find my glasses to put them on, the letters that I’m typing would be almost as blurry as if they were farther away and I wasn’t using my glasses.

Therefore, I like dice that are easy to read. Nowadays, this rules out most crystal dice. Instead, I like opaque dice with high contrast between the die’s color and the color its numbers are inked with.

And now for something haunted.

Several years ago, Paaie Breeshey brought her troupe to the city. The hoi polloi welcomed Breeshey, for her entertainments were famous near and far. The city’s elite welcomed her as well. Breeshey brought more than famed entertainments. She brought prestige, and Breeshey was much sought after for private performances in the homes of the wealthy and influential.

One of those wealthy and influential elites was the young Count Domonkos Vili. Handsome, urbane, witty. These all described Vili. So too did cold and cruel. The older Breeshey became smitten with Vili, and the count, in turn, toyed with the actress’s affections. Breeshey’s devotion grew into idolatry as Vili’s cruelties became more elaborate. Gradually, among the elites, Breeshey’s reputation turned from celebrated artist to pitiable fool. After Vili made public certain letters from Breeshey as part of a satire he’d written on the topic of lecherous matrons, Breeshey could tolerate no more humiliation.

So, she announced that she and her troupe were giving one final performance before they left the city for greener pastures. The elite, including Vili, attended en masse. Unknown to all, Breeshey’s final performance would be her supreme act of vengeance. She contracted with dark powers, exchanging her soul for the power to bring terror and death onto the heads of those who mocked her.

And terror and death were brought, turning Breeshey’s final performance into an orgy of screams, blood, and madness.

Although the city’s citizens demanded the theatre burned and the ground on which stands salted, the Lord Mayor refused. The property was walled off, and the theatre stands today as a cautionary tale.

Of course, rumors that undead monsters and even demons haunt the theatre have spread since Breeshey’s final performance. In hushed tones, people also speak of the treasures left unclaimed in the theatre. Breeshey was a wealthy woman. Neither her body nor her riches were ever discovered, and perhaps both lay in some dark, cursed corner of the theatre even today.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, place of power

Day 4 of the 30-Day D&D Challenge is supposed to be about my favorite gameworld. Well, that’s easy: the 1E world of Greyhawk from the boxed set. It included just enough information to establish a background setting without providing the overwhelming amount of campaign specific data that, in my experience, made the game more about the game world than the characters. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Forgotten Realms.)

We used the Greyhawk boxed set extensively as a backdrop for years. Sure, we may have ventured into other campaigns, such as Dark Sun or the Forgotten Realms or Birthright‘s setting, but we always ended up back in Greyhawk. This was true regardless of edition. My 1E games were largely set in Greyhawk. The same was true with 2E, 3E, 3.5E, and Pathfinder (although it was less true with Pathfinder as I tended to use my own material for that game).

In Other News

My son Christopher and I attended Space City Con 2013 here in Houston this last Friday evening and most of Saturday. I’m going to do a longer post about my thoughts, activities, et cetera, but for now here’s the short version: If I’d paid to get into the convention, I would’ve been really irritated with the experience. I’ve been to several cons over the years, and, in my opinion, Space City Con ranks very near the bottom of them. I don’t won’t to get into too much of the why right now, and I must also admit that it wasn’t all bad.

But, as I tell my students, it’s ontologically impossible for something to be all bad.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, Convention Gaming

First up, the 30-Day D&D Challenge about my favorite class!

Thief. Hands down. No contest. I enjoy the dichotomoy between the thief’s obvious role (the one who steals stuff) and the heroic role that I prefer the game to focus on. My thieves have often been people who want to be out for numero uno, to get rich off the sweat of other folk’s brows, et cetera, but cannot escape the nagging persistence of conscience. This has resulted in some unusual in-play situations.

Back in the day, my friend Fred and I would take turns DMing little solo adventures for each other’s characters. Most often, these involved something happening in a town, and the sessions were often ad-libbed. During one such session with Fred as DM, my most-used PC, Lord Jon Korbok, dwarven fighter/thief, stumbled past a dark alley wherein a youth was being mugged by a gang of ruffians. Korbok loudly scoffed at the ruffians’ technique. He then thrashed the lot of them to show them how a real ruffian takes care of business. After the fight, the exchange went something like this:

Fred as the Rescued Youth: Gosh! Thanks for saving me!

Me as Korbok: Shut up, and give me your gold.

Ah, good times.

And now, a dangerous quartet of alluring villains!

The Seekers of the Eternal Flame seek to cleanse the world of all forms of injustice. Unfortunately, the only way this can be accomplished is to eliminate injustice at its source, which lies within the hearts and minds of people. Those who are not perfectly just must be forced to be just. Those who cannot be forced to act justly must be destroyed. When the time is right, the Eternal Flame will reveal itself. The faithful will be rewarded. The unfaithful will be converted or killed.

There can be no other way.

Protective Aura: A magical aura constantly protects all four Seekers. This aura grants protection against attacks, which explains the Seekers’ Armor Class. It also renders them invulnerable to normal missiles (as protection from normal missiles).

Swords & Wizardry

Bahar
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Fiery touch 2d8
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Ignite materials, immune to fire, protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Bahar controls the fires of purification. Her fiery touch inflicts horrible burns and causes flammable materials to ignite if the material fails a saving throw (as determined by the Referee).

Gulzar
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Scimitar (1d8)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Charming gaze, magic resistance (35%), protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Gulzar’s gaze subjects any living creature who meets it to a powerful charm effect (-2 penalty to saving throw, works as charm monster). Gulzar can never have more than 18 Hit Dice worth of creatures charmed at a time.

Minu
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Battle axe (1d8)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Magic resistance (35%), protective aura, shriek
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Once every 1d6 rounds, Minu can unleash a shriek of terrible power. All creatures (except for the other Seekers, whose auras protect them from Minu’s shriek) within 50 feet Minu when she shrieks must make a saving throw. Those that fail are stunned for 2d6 rounds and suffer 2d8 points of damage.

Shokufeh
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Quarterstaff (1d6)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Catch spell, magic resistance (35%), protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Shokufeh has the ability to “catch” spells that target her. If Shokufeh’s magic resistance would protect her from the spell, she “catches” the spell and can immediately “throw” it (even if it isn’t her turn to act). A “thrown” spell takes effect just as if the original caster had targeted whomever Shokufeh chooses as her target.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, monsters, NPCs, Swords & Wizardry

Four or so weeks ago, someone on Facebook expressed the wish that I’d do this 30-day challenge thing. So, here I go!

For the first day, I’m suppose to talk about how I got started gaming. Well, I’ve already done that, so I’ll just toss in a link and move on.

Day two is my favorite playable race, which is the dwarf. My first ever character, Lord Jon Korbok, was a dwarf fighter in OD&D, and he morphed into a dwarf fighter/thief for 1E and 2E. For me back in the day, the dwarf epitomized the in-your-face, hard-as-nails adventurer. They waged epic wars against orcs and giants, the battles leaving both mountain sides and dark caves stained with blood and littered with bodies. Dwarves valued honor and bravery, and no self-respecting dwarf would shirk is duties to either an ally or his clan. Dwarves couldn’t be magic-users because they didn’t need to be magic-users. Dwarves got by on grit and hard steel, and that’s my kind of fantasy race.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge