Spes Magna Games

Then Elias was afraid, and rising up he went whithersoever he had a mind: and he came to Bersabee of Juda, and left his servant there, And he went forward, one day’s journey into the desert. And when he was there, and sat under a juniper tree, he requested for his soul that he might die, and said: It is enough for me, Lord, take away my soul: for I am no better than my fathers. And he cast himself down, and slept in the shadow of the juniper tree: and behold an angel of the Lord touched him, and said to him: Arise and eat. He looked, and behold there was at his head a hearth cake, and a vessel of water: and he ate and drank, and he fell asleep again. (1 Kings 19:3-6)

Fantasy roleplaying games often include divine magic, usable by clerics or other servants of deities. Among the magical effects these divine servants call upon is the ability to create food and drink. For example, in the most recent edition of D&D, the spell create food and water is a 3rd-level spell that creates “45 pounds of food and 30 gallons of water”, which is “enough to sustain up to fifteen humanoids or five steeds for 24 hours.” Furthermore, the “food is bland but nourishing, and spoils if uneaten after 24 hours. The water is clean and doesn’t go bad.”

Other fantasy games based on some version of D&D have similar spells. Thus, we find Create Food and Drink in Charlie Mason’s excellent White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game as a 5th-level Cleric spell. That makes it among the highest-level Cleric spells in the game, a use of a rare resource just to create “a one-day supply of simple food and drinking water for 24 humans”.

I’ve played fantasy roleplaying games for nigh on four decades, and I have no memory of any player ever using a spell to create food or water during a game. The closest I remember is goodberry, a 1st-level spell that not only creates food but also helps heal injuries.

When we look at religion and mythology for examples of divine food, we don’t often find things as mundane as “bland but nourishing”. Ambrosia, soma, amrita, magical peaches, et cetera, variably grant immortality, greatly extend the consumer’s lifespan, heal injuries and disease, and so on.

So, here are my suggestions about making spells that create food and water a little more magical for three different fantasy roleplaying games.

AD&D

Create Food & Water
Level: 3
Range: Touch
Duration: Permanent
Area of Effect: 1 cubic foot/level
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 turn
Saving Throw: None

Explanation/Description: When this spell is cast, the cleric causes food and/or water to appear. The food thus created is highly nourishing, and each cubic food of the material will sustain three human-sized creatures or one horse-sized creature for a full day. For each level of experience the cleric has attained, 1 cubic foot of food and/or water is created by the spell. Up to three times per day, a creature can spend 3 turns to make a meal of this magical food and/or water. During this time of rest and gustation, the creature heals 1d8 hit points (as cure light wounds). If the creature is afflicted by blindess or disease, the creature gets to make a new saving throw against the effect (assuming a saving throw was allowed to begin with). If the creature succeeds on this saving throw, the creature is healed of the condition (as cure blindess or cure disease).

D&D 5E

Create Food and Water
3rd-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You create 45 pounds of food and 30 gallons of water on the ground or in containers within range, enough to sustain up to fifteen humanoids or five steeds for 24 hours. The food is pleasing and nourishing, but spoils if uneaten after 24 hours. The water is clean and doesn’t go bad.

A creature who consumes this food and drink during a short rest regains a number of hit points equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier. The meal also ends any one of these conditions which might be afflicting the creature: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.

White Box

Create Food and Drink
Spell Level: C5
Range: Close
Duration: Instantaneous

This spell creates a one-day supply of remarkable food and drinking water for 24 humans (or horses, which drink the same amount as a man for game purposes).

Up to three times per day, a creature may consume this remarkable food and water, taking 30 minutes to rest, eat, and drink. After doing so, the creature is affected in one of the following ways:

1. The creature is cured of all diseases, including those magically inflicted.

2. The creature regains 1d6+1 HP.

3. A poison affecting the creature is counteracted (but the food and water cannot bring the dead back to life).

Tags: 1E AD&D, 5E D&D, Catholic, spells, WhiteBox Adventures

July is almost over. My experiment with self-employment since leaving my teaching position at a charter school in April (largely due to health reasons) has been a bit of mixed bag, but overall has been positive. I’m establishing myself as a tutor.

Most of my tutoring is via the Internet with students in China, but I also facilitate a combination writing/story gaming course in the Houston area. So far, I’ve worked with five students via Ludi Fabularum, and it’s been a blast. For years, I’ve facilitated a story game club when I taught in a school, and I’ve long thought combining teaching with gaming was a no-brainer. Of course, I’m not alone with this thought, nor did I think it first. Many talented and wonderful people have been using all sorts of games as teaching tools for centuries.

Speaking of roleplaying and teaching, you must check out the adventures of “Kelema the wolf girl”, the star of a delightful podcast hosted by DM Dad under the title Dungeons & Dragons Kidventures. It’s a lot like listening to an early 20th century radio play. DM Dad and his 4-year-old daughter provide the voices and action, and it’s a hoot. DM Dad’s descriptions are worthy of emulation, and include sound effects, voice acting, and the quick inclusion of details provided his daughter to help her become more a part of the story. Dungeons & Dragons Kidventures is part story time with a child and part roleplaying game session, and it’s got lots of heart and humor.

In other news, it’s Shark Week. To help you celebrate this annual feeding frenzy of science shows, I’ve released three Shallows & Sharks products, each for a different game system and featuring a half dozen shark-themed monsters.

* The 5E D&D Version includes the ixitakoth, a combination of the ixitxachitl and morkoth from the AD&D Monster Manual.

* The Mutant Future Version includes the electrifying shock shark.

* The Sword & Wizardy WhiteBox Version includes both exotic monsters as well as stats for more mundane sharks inspired by the 1981 first printing of the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Rulebook.

Each of the Shallows & Sharks PDFs currently sell for a mere $0.75 over at DriveThruRPG, and, of course, all three versions feature my take on the infamous sharknado.

Tags: 5E D&D, Mutant Future, Spes Magna Products, Swords & Wizardry, WhiteBox Adventures

Did you know I’ve released another PDF? Well, you do now.

Get your copy of Demi-Human Adventurers today, and expand your Swords & Wizardry White Box fantasy game with four new character classes: the Dwarf, the Elf, the Gnome, and the Halfling. Each race-as-class option presents ten levels of demi-human adventuring to thrill and delight your fellow gamers.

Next, an update on the domestic front. The Powers That Be that oversee the homeschooling program hosted by my parish have approved my “Introduction to Story Games” course. In addition to teaching writing and editing skills, we’ll also game. I have both Skill Centric Role Play by David Holmes and Hero Kids by Hero Forge Games en route to the house.

Huzzah!

On the movie front, I’ve recently watched 1959’s soporific Invasion of the Animal People, starring Barbara Wilson, Robert Burton, and Stan Gester, and, once again, the voice of John Carradine. Bumpy headed aliens invade Lapland, unleashing a giant shaggy monster that doesn’t do much more than lumber about and growl. I’ve heard that Rymdinvasion i Lappland, the original Swedish version, is better. It certainly couldn’t be worse.

Presenting the Bumpy-Headed Alien and the Animal Person, the first for Mutant Future and the second for Swords & Wizardry White Box.

Bumpy-Headed Alien
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120′ (40′)
Armor Class: 8
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 1 (weapon)
Damage: weapon
Save: L6
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: XVIII
XP: 1,070

Mutations: Ability Boost (WIL), Empathy, plus one other beneficial mutation

The bumpy-headed alien might not be an alien; it could be a Mutant Human. Regardless, it possesses impressive mental abilities (2d4+10 INT and 2d6+6 WIL). By focusing its mental energies, the bumpy-headed alien increases its willpower, making its empathic powers even more dangerous. The bumpy-headed alien often has access to technology combined with knowledge about how to use it.

Animal Person
Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 10
Attacks: Claw or Stomp (2d6)
Special: Immune to cold and piercing weapons
Move: 12
Save: 9
HDE/XP: 11/1,700

An animal person stands nearly 20 feet tall. Covered with long, shaggy fur, it walks on two blunt, elephantine feet. In combat, it attacks with its powerful claws or else stomps on its victim. An animal person is impervious to cold, and it cannot be harmed by piercing weapons such as arrows or spears.

Tags: monsters, Mutant Future, Swords & Wizardry, WhiteBox Adventures

Thy heart be lifted up, and thou remember not the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: And was thy leader in the great and terrible wilderness, wherein there was the serpent burning with his breath, and the scorpion and the dipsas, and no waters at all: who brought forth streams out of the hardest rock, And fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not. And after he had afflicted and proved thee, at the last he had mercy on thee, Lest thou shouldst say in thy heart: My own might, and the strength of my own hand have achieved all these things for me. (Deuteronomy 8:14-16)

Fire Serpent
Armor Class: 5 [14]
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: Bite
Special: Breath weapon, immune to fire, poison
Move: 12
Save: 15
HDE/XP: 6/400

Fire serpents, magical beasts that hunt during the heat of the day in certain deserts, appear much like normal snakes except for their brilliant scarlet coloration and the heat shimmer that surrounds them. An adult fire serpent may reach lengths between 12 and 16 feet. A fire serpent is uncomfortably hot to the touch, but not hot enough to cause immediate damage. When startled or threatened, this creature curls into striking position and exhales a gout of flame in a line 5 feet wide and 30 feet long. The blazing heat of this breath weapon inflcits 4d6 points of damage (a successful saving throw indicates half damage). A fire serpent’s bite packs a deadly poison. Those that succumb to this toxin burn from the inside.

Dipsas
Armor Class: 7 [12]
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: Bite (1d6-1)
Special: Induce thirst, surprise foes
Move: 9/6 (burrowing)
Save: 17
HDE/XP: 3/60

Another rarer sort of magical snake found in certain deserts is the dipsas, also known as the thirst snake. These snakes lurk near oases, waiting buried in the sand or within the spaces between rocks. A dispas surprises its prey 4 in 6 times. Its bite forces a saving throw to avoid magically induced thirst. This thirst is so powerful that the victim will ignore even attacks for 1d6 rounds in order to slake the maddening hunger for water. Dipsas prefer to attack prey gripped by overwhelming thirst.

Tags: Catholic, monsters, Swords & Wizardry, WhiteBox Adventures

With the ascendancy of the Via Lucis to political and theological supremacy, the Emperors began to enforce a more rigid orthodoxy. Those people judged heretical, schismatic, or pagan often faced serious social and economic penalties. Rather than convert or endure these penalties, many groups chose to leave imperial lands, establishing outlaw communities in wild places. But the price of their freedom is often high, especially for those who cross the Renos and Danuvius rivers into the Recondite Frontier. Strange machines and eldritch dangers haunt that vast forest now growing where the cities of the Sortarii once stood, built around the blood-stained ziggurats of those wicked sorcerers. Rarely, living in cursed places has cruel effects on newborns who come into the world as Hirviöes. Deformed, of prodigious size and strength, often disabled both mentally and morally, few Hirviöes survive to adulthood. Those that do most often turn to lives of violence and crime, outcasts unwelcome and feared by most.

Hirviö Class Abilities

Attribute Scores: When creating a Hirviö, do not roll attribute scores as normal. Instead, roll 1d6 for both Strength and Constitution, and record the following results: 1 = 13, 2 = 14, 3-4 = 15, 5 = 17, 6 = 18. Roll 3d4 and total the results to determine Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, and Charisma.

Great Size, Great Strength: The average Hirviö stands a bit more than 7 feet tall and tips the scales at about 25 stone. A Hirviö’s bulk and might enable him to perform enormous feats of strength, each of which is described hereafter.

When a Hirviö uses brute strength against an inanimate obstacle, roll 1d6. The chance of success is shown on the adjacent table. If successful, the player chooses two or three consequences from the following list. Consequences not chosen indicate results that were not avoided.

* The attempt doesn’t take a very long time.
* Nothing of value is damaged.
* The attempt doesn’t make an inordinate amount of noise.
* The inanimate obstacle can be fixed again without a lot of effort.

In melee combat, if a Hirviö scores maximum damage against a foe, some additional physical consequence results from the powerful attack. Possibilities include events such as sundering the foe’s shield, breaking the foe’s weapon, or forcing the foe into a disadvantageous position.

Finally, a Hirviö may move and brace himself so that his armor or shield takes the brunt of an attack. Reduce damage by half and roll 1d6. If the die result equals or exceeds the amount of protection provided by the armor or shield, the armor or shield is damaged. Reduce its effect on Armor Class by 1 point, which makes the armor or shield more suspectible to harm should this ability be used again. If the effect on Armor Class is reduced to 0, the armor or shield is ruined. Nota Bene: In most cases, a shield is destroyed by a single use of this ability.

Saving Throws: Hirviöes possess enormous strength and vitality, gaining a +2 bonus to saving throws against disease and poison.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Hirviöes may wear any kind of armor and may use shields; however, their armor and shields must be specially made for their great size. Hirviöes may use any weapons. They are large and strong enough to use two-handed melee weapons with only one hand, although they suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls when doing so. Hirviöes resolve their attacks using the same table as Fighters.

Tags: Character Classes, WhiteBox Adventures