Spes Magna Games

One week into the 30-Day D&D Challenge brings me to my favorite edition and another cop-out post. I don’t really have a favorite edition. I’ve played every edition of D&D up to but excluding 4E. I’ve enjoyed them all. Nowadays, if I’m GMing, I’d prefer to avoid editions later than 2E. I find them too work-intensive for game prep, and I no longer have that kind of time or energy. If I’m not GMing, but instead am actually getting to run a PC, I don’t think it’d matter to me much which edition I was playing. They all have their good and bad points.

That said, I would like to get to play in a 0E game again. It’s been more than two decades since I got to do that. I vaguely remember the last time 0E was on the table. I made up a halfling. That was it. Both his race and his class were halfling. I don’t recall the specifics about which flavor of 0E it was. I think that Jeff Dee’s picture of the long-haired human squatting to talk to one or more halflings was on the page that described what halflings could do.

Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, I’m the GM for Man Day Adventures, so the odds of me getting another chance to play that halfling seem small.

Ah, well. Next up, here’s a new monster and a spell to go with it.

Hungry Ghost
Hit Dice: 2
Armor Class: 7 [12]
Attacks: 2 claws (1d3), 1 gore (1d4)
Saving Throw: 16
Special: Clairvoyance, teleport
Move: 6
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 4/120

A hungry ghost is a horrible undead creature that appears as a humanoid with a deformed body: spindly limbs, tusks like a boar and claws, a long and slender neck, and a bloated abdomen. A hungry ghost was a person with a passion for some pleasure that ruled his life, leading him to commit all manner of crimes to sate his inordinate desires. In undeath, this inordinate desire becomes insatiable hunger, made all the more torturous since the hungry ghost cannot gulp down food through its scrawny neck without suffering terrible pain. Hungry ghosts can see through solid stone and other obstacles within a range of 60 feet. Hungry ghosts can also teleport short distances (up to 15 feet). It can do so and attack in the same turn. In most cases (75%), a hungry ghost teleports behind an opponent and attacks from the rear (with appropriate bonuses). These monsters cannot see through obstacles that have been appropriately blessed or that stand on consecrated ground. Likewise, they cannot teleport through or within such places.

Jautan’s Abhorrent Attendants
Spell Level: Magic-User, 5th Level
Range: Referee’s Discretion
Duration: 1 day

This spell conjures hungry ghosts. 1d4 hungry ghosts are conjured per level of the caster above 8th. The monsters remain until slain or until 24 have passed.

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

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