Spes Magna Games

Welcome to 2021, and Merry Christmas!

Let’s kick off the New Year with another For Gold & Glory monster. This is inspired by Jack Badashski’s Reaper.

Arrach

Climate/Terrain: Any
Frequency: Rare
Number Appearing: 1d8+2
Organization: Squad
Activity Cycle: Night
Intelligence: 13-14
Treasure: C (magic items are armor or weapons only)
Alignment: Lawful evil

Armor Class: 3
Movement: 12, fly 24 (MC 2)
Hit Dice: 6+6 (33 hp)
THACO: 15
Attack: 2 by weapon
Saving Throws: Fighter 7
Special Traits: Dancing weapons, magical weapons needed to hit, snares, spell immunities
Magic Resistance: None
Size: Man-sized (about 6′ tall)
Morale: 15
Experience: 3,000

The arrach are semi-corporeal undead, shadowy figures of bone, tattered robes, and blood-stained weapons, held together by malice and bloodlust. By day, the arrach wait impatiently in sunless places. After the sun sets, the arrach rush from hiding, seeking victims in a vain attempt to sate their hunger to inflict pain and death.

Arrach hunt in squads that operate with martial discipline. They fight intelligently and ruthlessly, not hesitating to retreat in order to survive long enough to fight again.

Arrach speak whatever languages they knew in life. Most arrach were evil soldiers of some sort who died violently.

Combat: Arrach attack with weapons, favoring swords, scythes, and spears. Each arrach carries 1d4+2 weapons and 1d3 bear traps. These weapons and traps are carried by folds of tattered cloth, skeletal limbs, et cetera. The round after an arrach’s weapon inflicts damage against a living foe, the weapon animates, flying up to 30 feet per round but never moving more than 30 feet from its owner. An animated weapon attacks once per round for four rounds, using the arrach’s THAC0. After four rounds, an animated weapon returns to its owner. The arrach’s dancing weapon attacks are in addition to its normal attacks.

The arrach’s bear traps pose a more subtle threat. Each trap functions much like a snare spell cast by a 6th-level priest, except that the arrach cannot use a tree, and the beartrap inflicts 1d6+1 points of damage. Each beartrap can be used once per night, and the arrach must spend three rounds setting the trap for it to function.

Arrach are immune to normal weapons and cold-based attacks. Nonmagical silver weapons inflict only half damage to them. As undead creatures, they cannot be affected by charm, hold person, and sleep spells. Poison and paralysis are likewise powerless against them. Holy water inflicts 2d4 points of damage per vial to an arrach, and sunlight renders this monster powerless and vulnerable to mundane weapons.

Tags: AD&D, For Gold & Glory, monsters, undead

Merry Christmas!

A few weeks ago I asked the Interwebz if there were any retro-clones of 2E AD&D. After weeding through the answers that didn’t go with my question, I discovered For Gold & Glory (FG&G hereafter) from God Emperor Games. I downloaded the PDF for the most reasonable price of $0. I’ve not given it a detailed read yet, but I like what I’ve skimmed.

FG&G is recognizably 2E AD&D, but it’s been streamlined, condensed a bit, and clarified. If your curious, click over via the link above. (Nota Bene: That link is an affiliate link.) There’s a 20-page preview available. The rules cover character creation and advancement, combat (including THAC0), skills (the FG&G term for proficiencies), and other player topics.

There are also sections for the DM covering magic items and monsters. The bestiary starts with aerial servant and ends with zombie. Along the way, you meet some familiar faces with new names: the corpse ravager (carrion crawler), gazer (beholder), and tunnel lurk (umber hulk). The PDF comes in at 384 pages from virtual cover to virtual cover with art drawn from public domain sources, mostly paintings that one might find hanging in museums.

If I were to start up a 2E AD&D campaign, each player having a copy of FG&G would suffice quite well. One can get the PDF and a black-and-white softcover book for about $11, or $15 for the hardcover. That’s a good price. Books with color art cost more, of course, depending on whether the color is standard or premium (whatever that means).

From what I’ve read, FG&G conforms so closely to 2E AD&D that all of my 2E AD&D stuff would work quite well with FG&G without modification. Since 2E AD&D was pretty close to 1E AD&D, that opens up a lot more of my old stuff for use as well.

I opened up another drawer in that virtual treasure chest of stock art from Aegis Studios that I purchased. Today’s monster is written up for FG&G with another piece of art by Jack Badashski, found in Necrobyss Stock Art #1. (Nota Bene: That’s also an affiliate link.)

Xinjirow

Climate/Terrain: Tropical land
Frequency: Rare
Number Appearing: 2d4
Organization: Nest
Activity Cycle: Night
Intelligence: 3-5
Treasure: B
Alignment: Neutral evil

Armor Class: 2 body, 7 eye
Movement: 9, burrow 6
Hit Dice: 8 (36 hp)
THACO: 11
Attack: 3 claws 2d6
Saving Throws: Fighter 8
Special Traits: Eye blast, surprise
Magic Resistance: None
Size: Huge (about 20′ long)
Morale: 12
Experience: 2,000

With its chitinous plates, spines, three segmented appendages ending in bony claws, and single massive eye, the xinjirow looks as if it squirmed from a nightmare into the waking world. The xinjirow burrows through the rich soil of tropical lands, using its spines to detect vibrations as well as to push it through the earth. When it detects possible prey, the xinjirow bursts from the ground and attacks.

Xinjirows live in subterranean nests. They drag unconscious or dead prey back to the nest in order to feed in the dark. The xinjirow has infravision with a range of 60 feet.

Combat: Xinjirows are intelligent enough to coordinate their attacks. When ambushing prey, the xinjirow imposes a -5 penalty to their foes’ surprise rolls. This monster burrows even through solid stone. It moves through soft earth at a movement rate of 6. Solid stone slows the xinjirow to half its burrow speed.

It attacks with its bony claws, but its first attack is with its fearsome eyeblast, which is 5′ wide and up to 100′ long. The searing heat of the eyeblast inflicts 6d8+6 points of damage, but a creature may save versus breath weapon to take half damage.

The xinjirow’s single eye can be targeted separately from its body, and the eye has 4d8 hit points. Damage inflicted to the eye does not count toward the damage needed to kill the xinjirow.

Tags: AD&D, For Gold & Glory, monsters, reviews

In my Tanelorn Keep Player’s Guide, I briefly describe five different pantheons common to the Western Lands. These pantheons each make their own ontological and theological claims. Side by side, these claims contradict each other, but few persons living in the Western Lands seem to care much about those contradictions.

The observant reader notices a couple of interesting facts about the available cleric spheres. One is that no deity grants major access to the Necromantic sphere. Raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection are the stuff of legends in the Western Lands. The second fact is that no deity grants access to the Astral sphere at all. Planar travel is not impossible, but it is almost always the province of wizards.

Moradin Forge-Lord

Moradin Forge-Lord is the creator and chief deity of the dwarves. Almost all of his clerics are dwarves, although a smattering of humans and halflings pay homage to Moradin. Most of Moradin’s clerics are lawful good. Smaller numbers of them are neutral good or lawful neutral.

Ability Score Requirements: Con 13, Wis 9
NWP Requirements: Read/Write Dwarven, Speak Dwarven
Major Spheres: All, Combat, Creation, Elemental (earth and fire), Guardian, Healing, Protection
Minor Spheres: Charm, Divination, Elemental (air and water), Necromantic, Summoning
Weapons Allowed: Bludgeoning weapons plus battle axe, light crossbow, and arquebus

Granted Powers

Earth Sense: Information from your dwarven mining skills may simply spring to mind unbidden. When rolling 1d6 to determine success, add 1 to the roll, which means you are less likely to succeed. This does not apply to determining approximately depth underground, which still requires deliberate effort, but succeeds 4 times in 6 (see PH 21 for more information).

Smite Enemies: Once per day per cleric level, you may smite an orc, half-orc, goblin, ogre, troll, ogre mage, giant, or titan. Add one-half your cleric level (round up) to your attack roll. Add your cleric level to your damage roll if your attack succeeds.

Twin Hammers: You may simultaneously wield two warhammers in melee combat. You incur half the normal penalties for attacking with two weapons when using Twin Hammers (PH 96).

Deep Sashelas

Deep Sashelas is the creator and chief deity of the elves. Almost all of his clerics are elves, although a smattering of humans and halflings pay homage to Deep Sashelas. Many of Deep Sashelas’s priest are chaotic good, but substantial numbers of them are neutral good or chaotic neutral.

Ability Score Requirements: Dex 13, Wis 9
NWP Requirements: Read/Write Elven, Speak Elven
Major Spheres: All, Charm, Divination, Elemental (air and water), Healing, Protection, Sun, Weather
Minor Spheres: Animal, Creation, Elemental (earth and fire), Guardian, Necromantic, Summoning
Weapons Allowed: Bludgeoning weapons plus long sword, short sword, longbow, and shortbow

Granted Powers

Blood Frenzy: When you injure a living enemy with a successful weapon attack, you get a +2 bonus to your next attack roll against that enemy. This granted power does not function against targets that do not bleed.

Sailor’s Lore: You get a +1 check modifier to NWP related to water or shipboard life.

Water’s Embrace: When you become submerged in water, you immediately become affected by water breathing with a duration equal to one melee round per priest level.

Baravar Cloakshadow

Baravar Cloakshadow created the gnomes. Druids form the core of Baravar’s clergy. Except for the granted power described below, Baravar’s druids conform to the rules found in the PH, pages 35-38.

Granted Powers

Baravar’s Veil: Baravar’s druids do not receive a +2 bonus to all saving throws versus fire and electrical attacks. Baravar gifts his druids with the power to cast illusion/phantasm spells found on the wizard spell lists. Treat this ability as if your druid has minor access to an Illusion sphere, meaning your druid can cast illusion/phantasm wizard spells that are no higher than 3rd level.

The Nornir

The Nornir are three goddesses who control the forces of fate. They are served by druids, almost all of them human. Except as noted below, the Nornir’s druids follow the normal rules for that class.

Spells Allowed: Your druid serving the Nornir has All, Animal, Divination, Elemental, Healing, and Plant as major spheres. He has Weather as a minor sphere.

Via Lux

The Via Lux, the Way of Light, is the religion brought to the Western Lands by halfling tribes fleeing the collapse of civilization in the distant east. The leaders of the Via Lux are clerics who conform to that class’s description (PH 33-34) except as noted below. Unlike the other pantheons, the Via Lux welcomes all, regardless of race. Among its clergy can be found all of the PC races, although halflings and humans are the most common. Most clerics of the Via Lux are neutral good, but chaotic good and lawful good clerics are found among the Divine Light’s ranks.

Spells Allowed: A Via Lux cleric has no access to the Astral sphere. He has minor access to the Animal, Charm, Elemental, Necromantic, and Plant spheres. He has major access to the remaining spheres: All, Combat, Creation, Divination, Guardian, Healing, Protection, Summoning, Sun, and Weather.

Tags: AD&D, fantasy pantheon, Tanelorn

I’ve mentioned Matt Jackson and his excellent maps before, many of which you can admire at this link. Matt’s maps have made two of my publications better, those publications being Ean Illiam’s Cavern Stores for Dungeon World and Clever Title Using Hack & Class: The Second Edition for The Black Hack.

Matt has a book available over at Amazon. With a $7.99 sticker price, Matt’s Dungeon Master’s Book of Cartography has made it onto my Amazon wishlist. If no one else gets it for me for Christmas, I’ll get it myself. Matt’s book’s blurb reads (in part):

Dungeon Masters should never get caught without a good dungeon map! This booklet contains 15 detailed maps with a note page to allow Dungeon Masters to flesh out write their own adventure.

Sounds excellent, and having seen Matt’s talent as an RPG cartographer and having confidence in his work ethic, I’m excited at the prospect of adding this book to my library.

Anyhoo, speaking of The Black Hack, which is a astonishingly good rules-light game, part of that system’s rules has made it into the Tanelorn Keep Player’s Guide, a campaign starter inspired by my recent revisitation to my 2E AD&D books.

(Nota Bene: The link for The Black Hack is an affiliate link; if you click and purchase, I get some cents.)

Action resolution in The Black Hack is based on rolling against an ability score, which are the familiar six from the various versions of D&D. When your character levels up, you roll to see if certain ability scores improve. I like this idea, and so I glommed and tweaked it to read as follows:

Increasing Ability Scores

When your PC gains a level, choose one of his prime requisites (assuming he has more than one) and one other ability score. For the prime requisite, roll 2d20. If either result exceeds your PC’s prime requisite score, increase that prime requisite by +1. For the other ability score, roll 1d20 and follow the same procedure. Apply all of the benefits of an increased ability score as appropriate.

Tags: AD&D, Matt Jackson, Tanelorn

In the Tanelorn Keep Player’s Guide, the player character race that’s changed the most from the standard 2E Player’s Handbook is mostly likely the gnome.

I’ve always kind of like gnomes, but I’ve got to admit that in AD&D there seems to be little to them. They’re like dwarves, but they have big noses and talk to rabbits, and, even though they’re nonmagical like dwarves, some of them are illusionists. For my gnomes, I got rid of the nonmagical-ness and played up their connections to nature and trickery. As with Deep Sashelas for the elves, I recast an AD&D gnomish deity of lesser repute into the role of creator and patron. I also took some inspiration from the treatment of halflings in the wonderful Birthright setting.

Nota Bene: The illustration accompanying this post is by the wonderfully talented Tony DiTerlizzi.

Gnomes

Diminutive and mercurial, the gnomes live in wooded hills, avoiding the conflicts and temptations of civilization. While dwarves were carved and forged from stone and metal, and elves were shaped from coral and seafoam, Baravar Cloakshadow fashioned his people from twilight and whispers.

Gnomes live in extended family clans ruled by jarls. Internecine conflict between gnomish clans is not uncommon as clans fight to control resources, avenge grudges, and honor allegiances. Against trespassers, gnomes rely on skirmishers reinforced by magic from druids and illusionists. Many tales are told about scouts or bandits venturing into gnomish lands only to be set upon by packs of enchanted beasts or to become lost in mazes of tangled thorns.

The gnomes claim as their own the rugged, forbidding mountains and wooded vales of Bebryx, that region that forms the inhospitable border between the Western Lands to the north and the wilds of Hispalis to the south.

Gnome Abilities

Your gnome PC has the abilities described on PH 22, with the following changes:

Low-Light Vision: Your gnome cannot see in total darkness, but his eyes are adapted to low-light environments. When relying on a campfire, candle, hooded lantern, torch, or the illumination of a magic weapon, the effective radius of light is doubled for a gnome. See Table 63: Light Sources, PH 118, for more information.

Proficiencies: All gnomes receive a bonus weapon proficiency that must be used to learn one of these weapons: blowgun*, khopesh, sickle, or staff sling. A gnome can use the chosen weapon regardless of class. All gnomes receive a bonus NWP that must be used to learn animal lore, direction sense, herbalism, set snares, or weather sense.

Twilight and Whispers: Your gnome is not especially resistant to magic. In fact, he has certain magical powers. A gnome can identify illusion/phantasm effects only, doing so once per day per level. This functions as a spell with an effective casting time of one round. The effects persist for one round. While using the ability, the gnome cannot see or hear anything other than illusions and phantasms.

Also once per day per level, your gnome may dimension door up to 30 yards distance to a location he can see, doing so as a move. This gnomish ability does not move through the Astral Plane, but instead occurs through the Demi-Plane of Shadow. A gnome cannot use this ability if in either direct sunlight or total darkness.

Passing through the Demi-Plane of Shadow is risky. Many creatures, most of them hostile, reside in that plane. Each time in a day that your gnome uses this ability, there is a cumulative 5% chance that some native of the Demi-Plane of Shadow “hitches” a ride back the Material Plane.

* A gnomish blowgun is a size M weapon rather than size L. Its damage, rate of fire, and range remain the same, but attack rolls with a gnomish blowgun incur a -1 penalty due to its lack of power compared to a standard blowgun.

Tags: AD&D, Tanelorn