Spes Magna Games

I delve further into Gamma World to reach the hisser: “This 3-meter long half-man-half-snake inhabits the more arid regions…, often settling near an oasis or well. … Their society is matriarchal, one female leading a group of…males and young. She, like a queen bee, lays all the eggs for eat settlement, and all of them hatch as males.”

The hisser is a tough monster in Gamma World: AC 3, 18 Hit Dice, some interesting mutations. For my AD&D conversions of mutants, I’ve been scaling back the Hit Dice. Arks, for example, have 8 Hit Dice in Gamma World, but my AD&D ark has 2 Hit Dice. I scaled the 20-HD gren way back to 1+2 HD.

With the hisser, however, I’m drawn to the idea of a hisser matriarch ruling over male hissers, who I envision has a sort of insect-like hivemind complete with drones and warriors.

So, today, we meet the hisser queen. Drones and warriors show up next ThursdAD&D.

Hisser Queen
Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 3
Move: 12″
Hit Dice: 10
% in Lair: 75%
Treasure Type: D, Q (x3)
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: by weapon type (x2) or 1-6/2-12
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Exceptional
Alignment: Any
Size: L (10′ long)
Psionic Ability: 151-250
Attack/Defense Modes: B/FGH
Level/XP Value: VII/2,250 + 14/hp

The hisser queen attacks either with melee weapons or else with her powerful bite. If her bite hits, she constricts for 2-12 points of damage per melee round. If several strong creatures (such as 4 humans of 17 or greater strength) can grasp the queen at head and tail, the can uncoil her in 2-5 melee rounds.

Once every four melee rounds, the queen can emit a piercing hiss that causes 3-18 points of damage due to ruptured tissues to all creatures (except the queen) in a 30-foot radius (no saving throw). Creatures damaged by the queen’s hiss are deafened for a number of melee rounds equal to the damage taken (saving throw versus breath weapon halves the duration). She is immune to fire/heat and sound-based attacks.

The hisser queen is psionic. She has the following psionic abilities: clairvoyance, hypnosis, and telepathy. The latter power is the queen’s primary means of communication. Hissers have no spoken or written language.

The hisser queen is guarded by 2-20 drones and 2 warriors who fight with special ferocity, gaining a +2 on “to-hit” rolls to defend their queen.

Hissers are territorial and carnivorous. The alignment of a hisser brood matches that of the queen. Good-aligned queens tend toward benevolence and may aid travelers. Neutral-aligned queens may do likewise, but often only in exchange for goods and services. Evil-aligned queens and their broods cannot be trusted, and they often capture intelligent creatures for use as slaves and food.

Tags: AD&D, Gamma World, monsters, ThursdAD&D

Today I fight back against a nagging headache that I caught in time before it went migraine on me while offering for your consideration another AD&D conversion of a Gamma World mutant. (Nota Bene: The Gamma World link is an affiliate link. If you click it and buy the book, I get a bit of money.) I’ve already done this with fens, arks, and badders.

Today I bring to you the reclusive, peace-loving grens. To quote their entry in Gamma World: “Grens appear to be completely normal Pure Strain Humans…except for their deep green skin! They are intelligent and live secluded lives in harmony with nature. They inhabit only deep forests, where they cannot be seen or sensed by any creature until they reveal themselves.”

Translating grens to AD&D requires a bit of poetic license. Grens have 20 Hit Dice in Gamma World, which corresponds to a Constitution of 20 in terms of ability scores. Since I don’t want secluded forests full of 20-HD, green-skinned humanoids, I decided on the following:

Gren
Frequency: Very rare
No. Appearing: 15-150
Armor Class: 9 (or better for leader types)
Move: 12″
Hit Dice: 1+2
% in Lair: 40%
Treasure Type: Individuals K; A in lair
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: By weapon type
Special Attacks: Nil
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Mean: very to highly
Alignment: Neutral good
Size: M
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: II/28 + 2/hp

In their forest homes, grens are invisible and inaudible unless a gren chooses otherwise or attacks. For every 30 grens encountered, there will be an additional 2nd-level ranger. For every 40 grens, there will be a 3rd-level ranger, and for every 50 grens there will be a 4th-level ranger. Grens will be led by a druid of 5th, 6th, or 7th level — 5th if under 60 in the party, 6th if under 125, or 7th if more than 125. The leader will have 2 assistant druids of 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level as a personal bodyguard. All these characters are in addition to the number of grens indicated by the dice.

For every 50 grens encountered, there is a 15% chance that there will be an illusionist of 5th or 6th level, accompanied by two assistants of 1st or 2nd level in addition to the other members of the group. If more than 100 grens are encountered, the illusionist will be of the higher possible level.

Grens are semi-nomadic, and they build simple villages from native materials. In their lair, there will be females equal to 200% of the males and children equal to 100% of their number. Females are equal to males, but have 1 Hit Die. Children are noncombatants. For every 50 females, there is a 15% chance there will be a female fighter of 3rd to 5th level who is imbued with great determination and skill. She adds 1 to her hit probability and damage dice, and she never checks morale. These warrior women command great respect within gren communities.

Grens shun combat. Most grens use simple weapons and shields for defense. Leader types will be better armed and armored. Grens speak their own language, a strange mixture of Common and the elvish tongue.

Tags: AD&D, Gamma World, monsters, ThursdAD&D

This Sunday, the AD&D game continues as the characters — all squires serving Lady Mirelyn — continue to investigate sinister and secretive skullduggery in Saltmarsh’s allegedly haunted house. So far, the squires have found little evidence of haunting, but they have found evidence of murder in the form of a rot grub bloated corpse in the house’s basement.

Last Thursday, I presented AD&D versions of two creatures from the 1981 printing of TSR’s Gamma World. I’m a little more pressed for time this week, so here’s one more mutant monster reimagined.

Fen
Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 4-40
Armor Class: 7
Move: 6″//12″
Hit Dice: 2+1
% in Lair: 30%
Treasure Type: D
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 1-6/by weapon
Special Attacks: Nil
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low to average
Alignment: Neutral (evil)
Size: M
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: III/65 + 3/hp (Assistant or guard: III/110 + 4/hp. Leader: IV/170 + 5/hp. Chief: V/300 + 6/hp. Shaman: III/135 + 4/hp.)

Climate/Terrain: Coastal waters and swamps/tropical to temperate
Organization: Tribal
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Omnivore
Morale: Elite (14)

Fens are intelligent, man-sized humanoid fish. On land, they walk on stubby fins that double as legs. Fens have both lungs and gills, and they may remain out of water for as long as 24 hours without suffering any ill effects. Due to their translucent skin, fens blend into their environs when underwater so as to become invisible (requiring the ability to see invisible objects to locate them) as long as they are not attacking.

Fens are immune to electricity, and they take half damage from fire-based attacks. They make saving throws against light-based attacks with a +2 bonus. Fens fight with weapons, especially stabbing weapons and nets. They also use their tails to club their enemies. Once per day, a fen can polymorph into a large bird (treat as a giant eagle, but the fen’s hit points do not change). A fen can maintain its bird form for up to 1 turn.

For every 10 fens encountered, there will be a leader with armor class 5, 19 hit points, and 4+1 hit dice and four assistants with with armor class 6, 14 hit points, and 3+1 hit dice. If more than 24 are encountered, there will be in addition a chief with armor class 4, 22 hit points, and 5+1 hit dice and 12 guards with armor class 5, 12-14 hit points, and 3+1 hit dice. For every 10 fens encountered, there is a 50% chance for a shaman with 3+1 hit dice and the spell ability of a 3rd-level cleric.

The lair of these creatures is usually underwater in caves. Fens rarely build crude villages on the coast or on a hillock in a swamp. A fen lair will be protected by 2-8 giant electric eels (if underwater) or 2-5 crocodiles (if built on land). Female fens are nearly indistinguishable from males, and usually stay in the lair, where they guard hatcheries and train the tribe’s animals. Females and young typically number 85% and 125% the total number of males.

Fens are omnivorous, but they are likely to prefer human flesh to other meats.

Tags: AD&D, Gamma World, Mirelyn's Skyrealm, monsters, ThursdAD&D

This last Sunday, I re-restarted an AD&D game. The characters all live on a flying island and serve as squires to Lady Mirelyn. For their first mission, the characters were dispatched to the sleepy town of Saltmarsh to investigate why the town has been consistently behind on its annual harvest taxes for the past several years.

Turns out, the root of the problem has something do with a haunted house….

Anyway, I’ve got a small group with only one player new to tabletop RPGs. Amusingly enough (to me), our new player is a former student of mine, whom I taught way back when he was in middle school. He’s all grown up now, older than my son. It’s funny as he struggles to address me as anything other than “Mr. Chance”.

But I digress.

Given that most of my players are D&D veterans, I want to change up things a bit to try to recreate that sense of wonder we first had when we started playing and hadn’t read the entire Monster Manual. This means new monsters. Well, sort of. Today’s offerings aren’t really new. They come the 1981 printing of TSR’s Gamma World, which remains one of the greatest RPGs of all time.

Ark
Frequency: Uncommon
No. Appearing: 20-200
Armor Class: 5
Move: 15″
Hit Dice: 2
% in Lair: 20%
Treasure Type: Individuals L, M; D, Q (x5), S in lair
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 2-8 or by weapon
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low to average
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Size: L (9′ tall)
Psionic Ability:
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: II/28 + 2/hp (Leader-type or guard: III/125 + 4/hp. Chieftan: IV/165 + 5/hp)

Climate/Terrain: Any non-desert/tropical to temperate
Organization: Band
Activity Cycle: Night
Diet: Carnivore
Morale: Steady (11)

Arks are intelligent, brutal dog-men of great height but slender build. They live and travel in rapacious bands, wherein the largest and strongest dominate their smaller, weaker pack mates. Arks are generally on friendly terms with other evil races, such as badders. Arks are strong and fast. They have infravision. They speak their racial tongue, chaotic evil, and often (60%) badder and/or the common tongue.

For every 20 arks encountered, there will be a leader-type with 3+3 hit dice and 16 hit points. If 100 or more of these creatures are encountered, there will be a chieftan with 4+4 hit dice, 22 hit points, armor class 3, and +2 to damage. The chieftan has 2-12 guards with 3+3 hit dice, 16 hit points, armor class 4, and +1 to damage. If arks are encountered in their lair, there will always be a chieftan with 5-20 guards. The lair also contains females and young equal to 50% and 200% respectively the number of males present.

Arks are nomadic 80% of the time, but occasionally (20%) take up residence in an abandoned (or cleared) village, building, or cave. If nomadic, arks are quite likely (65%) to have 2-8 ark-hounds (treat as hyenas) or 1-6 ark-beasts (treat as hyaenodons) (80% and 20%, respectively). These beasts serve as pets and guards. If the arks have settled a location, double the number of beasts possible. Arks capture others for slaves and food, especially humans, as arks view human hands as a delicacy. Arks always have captives numbering 1 victim per 10 arks.

Arks are not dangerous only because of their numbers and their vicious natures. They also possess strange, magical powers. An ark who concentrates (treat the ark as motionless opponent as per DMG, p. 70) is capable of telekinesis with a range of 1″ per hit die, affecting 250 gold pieces of weight per hit die. Multiple arks can cooperate to increase the range and strength of their telekinesis, but the arks must be touching each other to do so.

Ark leader-types, chieftans, and guards can drain life energy from creatures of semi- or greater intelligence. This life leech ability can be used once per day. It affects a 3″ radius around the ark, and it affects all creatures in the radius (except the user). An affected creature loses 1-6 hit points (save versus death magic negates). The ark gains a number of hit points equal to the total damage inflicted (but this power cannot increase the ark’s hit points to more than twice normal value). Excess leeched hit points not destroyed in combat dissipate after 24 hours.

An ark chieftan can control weather as a druid once per week, but only after 1 turn of concentration. After the period of concentration, another 1-4 turns pass before the weather change is complete. This power weakens the chieftan, causing a loss of 3-10 hit points.

A peculiar aspect of ark psychology is their fear of large, winged creatures. Arks have -1 “to hit” and a -2 morale penalties against such creatures.

Badder
Frequency: Uncommon
No. Appearing: 40-400
Armor Class: 4
Move: 12″ (3″)
Hit Dice: 2-7 hit points
% in Lair: 40%
Treasure Type: Individuals K; C in lair
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1-6 or by weapon
Special Attacks: Empathy
Special Defenses: Empathy
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low-average
Alignment: Lawful evil
Size: S-M (4′ to 5′ tall)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: I/5 + 1/hp (Leader or assistant: I/14 + 1/hp. Chief or bodyguard: II/40 + 3/hp.)

Climate/Terrain: Any land/any non-tropical
Organization: Tribe
Activity Cycle: Night
Diet: Omnivore
Morale: Average (10)

Badders are militaristic, humanoid badgers. They have a tribal society, the strongest ruling the rest, allowing fealty to the badder king. Badders enjoy dwelling in dismal surroundings, preferring subterranean habitats to others. Badders hate full daylight and attack at a -1 when in sunlight. They have normal infravision (60′ range). Badders are quick and agile, which in part accounts for their high armor class. These humanoids hate gnomes and dwarves, and will attack them in preference to other creatures. Badders are slave takers and are fond of torture. They speak their own tongue, lawful evil, and (80%) one or two other languages.

For every 40 badders encountered, there will be a leader and 4 assistants, all of whom have 1 hit die. If 200 or more badders are encountered, there will be the following additional figures: a sub-chief and 2-8 guards, each with 1+1 hit dice, armor class 5, and doing +1 damage. In their lair, there will be a badder chief and 2-8 bodyguards, each with 2+2 HD, armor class 4, and doing +2 damage. Also, there will be females and young equal to 60% and 100% respectively of the number of male badders encountered. Badders often have beasts in their lair, specifically 5-30 badgers (60%) or 3-18 giant badgers (40%), with these animals being present 60% of the time.

There is a 25% chance that any force of badders encountered will have 10% of its strength mounted on giant badgers. If this is the case, there will be an additional 10-40 giant badgers without riders.

Badders are fair miners, and they are able to detect passages which slope, unsafe areas, and approximate depth and direction between 50% to 80% of the time.

Exceptional badders (e.g. leaders, assistants, et cetera) have empathy. This allows them to detect the basic needs, drives, and/or emotioned generated by any unshielded mind within 1″ per hit die. This makes an alert badder difficult to surprise (1 in 6 chance). Badders can project emotions into the minds of creatures of semi-intelligence or less. This ability has a range of 3″ and affects a 1″ wide path. Creatures are permitted a saving throw versus spell to resist the effects, which last for 1-4 melee rounds per hit die of the badder. Exceptional badders use their empathic projection ability to frighten animals, entice prey, et cetera.

Tags: AD&D, Gamma World, Mirelyn's Skyrealm, monsters, ThursdAD&D

James Ward is ill. He posted on Facebook:

Got terrible news today. I need lots more hospital time with several more foot operations. How am I ever going to get work done in a situation like this. Bills are mounting and I have to be home to get much work done. I don’t remember when I have been this miserable.

I don’t know Mr. Ward, but I cannot help but feel affection for him. He co-designed the first edition of Gamma World, one of the games I cut my RPG teeth on way back when. I still adore that game.

Taylor Frank over at Dungeon Lord has set up a raffle fundraiser for Mr. Ward. Please check out the details by clicking on this sentence. If you can, please contribute.

Tags: Gamma World, James Ward