Spes Magna Games

If you’re wondering, no, I’ve not forgotten about the goblin spider lair. I just have to remember to find the maps that I was working on.

And, so, onto today’s post.

Patreon artist Fernando Salvaterra recently posted this fun illustration of three skeletons about to teach a group of tomb trespassers a lesson about property rights. Nota Bene: If you click on the pic, it embiggens.

Each skeleton has a magic item it uses in combat. These magic items detect as evil. Each has the same deleterious effect when used by non-evil creatures, namely that the creature suffers a -1 penalty to saving throws against fear effects per item used.

The Archer
Number: 1
Size: Medium
HD: 2 (d12) (13)
AC: 13
Saves: P
Move: 30 ft.
Attacks: 2 with Short Bow (1d6 plus magical effect) or 1 with Short Sword (1d6)
Special: +1 or Better Weapon to Hit, Magic Quiver, Regeneration 1, Undead
Int: Average
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Type: Undead (Unique)
Treasure: 4
XP: 56

Combat: The Archer prefers ranged combat, firing two arrows per round from its shortbow. If forced into melee, it pulls the short sword from its skull. The Archer cannot be harmed by nonmagical weapons, and even magical slashing or piercing weapons inflict but half damage to it.

Magic Quiver: The Archer’s magic quiver holds a dozen arrows. Each day at sundown, the magic quiver refills with a dozen arrows. When an arrow is pulled from the magic quiver, roll 1d6 to determine that arrow’s magical effect:

1-4 = +1 to hit and damage
5 = +2 to hit and damage
6 = +3 to hit and +1d6 damage against a living creature

Regeneration: The Archer regenerates 1 hit point per round until reduced to 0 hit points, at which time it regenerates 1 hit point per hour. The Archer cannot regenerate damage from holy water.

Undead: The Archer is immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and all mind-affecting spells (charms, compulsions, et cetera).

The Spearman
Number: 1
Size: Medium
HD: 3 (d12) (20)
AC: 13
Saves: P
Move: 30 ft.
Attacks: 2 with Magic Spear (1d6+1)
Special: +1 or Better Weapon to Hit, Magic Spear, Regeneration 1, Undead
Int: Average
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Type: Undead (Unique)
Treasure: 4
XP: 120

Combat: The Spearman prefers melee combat, attacking twice per round with its magic spear. The Spearman cannot be harmed by nonmagical weapons, and even magical slashing or piercing weapons inflict but half damage to it.

Magic Spear: The Spearman’s magic spear is a +1 weapon. If thrown, it splits into two spears that may target any two creatures within 10 feet of each other (or both may target a single creature within spear range). The thrown magic spears disappear at the end of the round, reappearing in the Spearman’s hand as a single spear.

Regeneration: The Spearman regenerates 1 hit point per round until reduced to 0 hit points, at which time it regenerates 1 hit point per hour. The Archer cannot regenerate damage from holy water.

Undead: The Spearman is immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and all mind-affecting spells (charms, compulsions, et cetera).

The Captain
Number: 1
Size: Medium
HD: 4 (d12) (26)
AC: 18
Saves: P
Move: 30 ft.
Attacks: 2 with Magic Sword (1d8+1)
Special: +1 or Better Weapon to Hit, Magic Sword, Regeneration 1, Undead
Int: Average
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Type: Undead (Unique)
Treasure: 4
XP: 224

Combat: The Captain prefers melee combat, attacking twice per round with its magic sword. The Captain cannot be harmed by nonmagical weapons, and even magical slashing or piercing weapons inflict but half damage to it.

Magic Sword: The Captain’s magic longsword is a +1 weapon. Against lawful good creatures, the sword inflicts an addition 1d6 points of damage with a successful hit.

Regeneration: The Captain regenerates 1 hit point per round until reduced to 0 hit points, at which time it regenerates 1 hit point per hour. The Archer cannot regenerate damage from holy water.

Undead: The Captain is immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and all mind-affecting spells (charms, compulsions, et cetera).

Tags: C&C, Goblin Spider Lair, monsters, undead

Well, my summer vacation is about 3/4 done, and it’s been an odd one.

We’ve had two storms that took out the power in Houston, the latter being Hurricane Beryl, which left pretty much the whole city in the dark. For about two weeks of my eight week vacation, Casa Chance has had no electricity. Good times.

I continue to GM games. I’m running a C&C/DCC/MCC mash-up every other Saturday. This campaign is loosely set in The Marmoreal Tomb. The PCs live in Sisak (from Dungeon #24 [July/August 1990]), very nearly the easternmost vestige of civilization. There are two groups of PCs. They’ve fought an evil wizard, a murderous demon-wolf, a human-sacrificing gnome, a hill giant family, a stone minotaur, and a bevy of evil humanoids. They’ve also started to deal with the meta-plot consequences of the campaign world being invaded by modrons.

I’m also running a DCC/MCC mash-up set in a post-apoc World of Greyhawk. In the funnel session, a mob of 0-levels defended the Inn of the Welcome Wench from a bullywug invasion during a horrific thunderstorm. In the second session, the survivors investigated the absence of Rufus and Burne. The PCs broke into the pair’s tower to discover the wizard Burne transformed into a horrid creature using its eye and mouth tentacles to operate Rufus as a puppet. The PCs found themselves facing a deadly threat, and so they fled the tower.

During and since North Texas RPG Con, I’ve picked up a few new RPG products. Let’s read about one of them now. I’ll get to the others later.

Tales from the Tavern, Issue #1 from Elven Maid Inn. This 98-page, system-agnostic gaming magazine is full of good stuff. There’s an essay. There are two interviews. There’s an explanation of Dystopian Dawn character creation. I dig the crossword puzzles and the two “NPC Extravaganzas”, which give system-neutral write-ups for NPCs to be dropped into my campaigns. There’re also monsters, fiction, spells, and campaign lore. It’s a great debut issue, and I’m looking forward to Issue #2.

Caveat: The editing in Issue #1 is spotty. There are numerous typos throughout, some of which would have been caught by spellcheck. This doesn’t make Issue #1 not well-worth checking out, but it does irritate my inner English teacher. Also, those last two links are affiliate links, and I’m the affiliate.

If you’re looking for worthwhile creators on Patreon, here’re the ones I currently support:

Talons and Tales: Art and stories created by a youthful artist. There’s not a lot of content here yet, but what there is amuses and inspires. Talons and Tales had me hooked with 29 June’s “Squirrel Rogue” post, especially the sketch of the squirrel rogue crouched in front of a locked chest, pausing long enough to give the viewer the side-eye.

Tome of Salvaterra: Many wonderful examples of stock art, maps, and creatures illustrated by Fernando Salvaterra, who is “a Brazilian freelance writer and illustrator who loves RPG and maps.” I get a real old-school vibe along with some whimsy as well.

Jeshields – RPG Stock Art: The title says it all. Illustrations come in black-and-white and/or color (depending on your level of patronage). There are monsters, characters, and items, oh my! There is a lot of content here. JE releases 10 illustrations a month and gives away credit for his on-line store of stock art. Not only that JE’s runs a great game of marines versus aliens.

Silver Compass Maps: Silver designs maps for table-top gaming. I’ve used several of them via Foundry when playing on-line. These maps usually have variants, such as daytime or night for outdoor maps. Silver does some lovely work, and my players have commented how nice her maps are.

AlexTheMapMaker: This my newest Patreon. Alex puts out one to three maps monthly. His town maps are what sold me. They’re simple, easy to read, and come with a handy key of main buildings. He also has battlemaps as well as isometric and traditional dungeons. What’s not to like?

I’m still not back on track with what’s supposed to be regular posting. It’s not that I’ve accomplished nothing since my last post, but nothing I’ve accomplished explores the goblin-spider’s lair enough to be worth a post.

But, I did do this!

Unidentified Female Observer
Number: 1-4, 6-24
Size: Medium
HD: 6 (d8)
AC: 15
Saves: M, P
Move: 40 ft.
Attacks: By weapon (see below)
Special: Alien Technology, Telepathy
Int: Superior to Genius
Alignment: Lawful Neutral/Evil
Type: Extraplanar
Treasure: 6
XP: 330 + 6

UFOs appear much like lovely humans (or maybe half-elves) who wear tight clothes made from what looks like shiny, metallic fabric. They wear strange masks and helmets or headdresses. Graceful and strong, many UFOs avoid combat, seeking to study what to them are strange forms of life, but evil UFOs may abduct creatures in order to perform painful experiments upon them.

UFOs speak their own language. They may choose to communicate telepathically, and this ability transcends language barriers.

Combat: UFOs use weapons in combat. A certain UFO will have 2-3 weapons available. See below for a suggestions.

Alien Physiognomy: A UFO’s Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores range from 13-18 (1d6+12). Adjust attacks, damage, hit points, et cetera as appropriate. When determining encumbrance, count Strength and Constitution as prime attributes.

Shiny Metal Fabric: A UFO’s clothing has a +5 AC bonus and an EV of 1.

Strange Helmet/Headdress: A UFO’s helmet/headdress has a +5 AC bonus and an EV of 1. It can be set to deepvision, see invisibility, locate object, or twilight vision.

Telepathy: UFOs may communicate telepathically. They understand all languages and can communicate with all creatures, save those with no discernible intelligence.

Weapon – Belt: When activated, the belt duplicates protection from arrows (1 charge), invisibility sphere (2 charges), teleport (3 charges), or wall of force (3 charges). These operate as if cast by a 9th-level wizard. The belt has 9 charges when fully charged. It regains 3 charges per day.

Weapon – Blaster: This hand-held ranged weapon fires a blast of destructive energy that duplicates burning hands (1 charge), magic missile (1 charge), shatter (2 charges), or lightning bolt (3 charges). These operate as if cast by a 5th-level wizard. The blaster has 7 charges when fully charged. It regains 3 charges per day.

Weapon – Rod: This hand-held melee weapon carries a powerful electrical charge that inflicts 1d8+5 points of damage with a touch attack roll.

Tags: C&C, monsters

I shall return to regular posts on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays aiming at a more-or-less complete goblin-spider lair. Work has begun. For example….

On the Water Pit Level of Bosukumo’s domain, intrepid adventurers can find a hidden door in the floor that opens to reveal a dark shaft leading down toward the unknown. While descending this shaft, adventurers pass through a planar effect. The top of the shaft begins in the Material Plane. The bottom ends into a pocket plane heavily affected by the Elemental Plane of Earth.

The Earth Level is the first of four more interconnected geomorphs. Exits from the Earth Level lead to twisting passages that randomly lead to another geomorph (most of the time). The Air, Fire, and Water Levels all present different environmental challenges.

Aside from completing the elemental geomorphs, I’m also working on a more detailed description of Bosukumo’s lair. This bit of effort will likely result in a downloadable PDF. Whether or not I further polish this projected rough diamond into something publishable remains to be seen.

The challenge in all of this is to complete a sufficient amount of drawing and writing so that I’m ahead of the game by enough that future posts in the series don’t get delayed.

Tags: Wednesday Lore

Well, so much for my plan to post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The middle of the week arrived, and I got some stuff done, but obviously none of that was typing up and posting more Wednesday Lore about the goblin-spider’s lair. So, how about this:

I’ve been running Castles & Crusades for a while now. I have a weekend C&C game, and I have three groups of students in grades 5 through 7 for whom I run C&C, each group getting lunch/recess time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to assemble in my classroom for heroic fantasy adventures. This summer, I’ll be running two one-week long C&C game camps as well.

The more I play C&C, the more I like it. I’ve pulled several of my AD&D books from the shelves to use with C&C. With my students, I’m running a series of old Dungeon adventures. One of my students groups segued from a Dungeon adventure into Day of Al’Akbar. This week, the PCs in that group navigated the checkerboard riddle room, albeit not without suffering some damage from electricity arcs.

In my weekend game, we’ve acquired two new players, the middle-school-age nephews of one of my regulars. With the addition of two new players, we firmly established a second group of six PCs operating out Elmelynn, a small town about a week north-by-northwest of the campaign’s original group of four PCs who operate out Sisak, a frontier farming village. The new group has helped a lost modron escape to a friendlier reality. In the process, the new group learned that a modron army has invaded their campaign world in order to “restore the balance” (as the modron explained). The group’s rogue also learned that their town’s criminal kingpin has demon or devil blood flowing in his veins. (Aside: I really wish C&C called rogues thieves and wizards magic-users.)

Shortly after the modron adventure, the PCs signed on to escort of new tax assessor to Sisak. (Nota Bene: This tax assessor is the replacement of the assessor who was killed by monsters which were defeated by the Sisak group of PCs.) Group two also heard that a special shipment of dwarven ale had gone missing en route from Hol Lodur in the Shadowed Vale to Elmelynn. Since the tax assessor isn’t leaving for a few days, the players decided to track down the missing ale and collect the reward offered for its return.

Group two’s first day on the trail of the ale was eventful. Hol Lodur in the Shadowed Vale is not far from Elmelynn. The PCs tracked the missing shipment to where it had been stolen by a group of humanoids, whose trail led to an abandoned dwarven hold in the wooded highlands of the Vale. Cautious investigation learned that the ale was in the hold, and that there were bugbears and goblins there as well. The PCs withdrew to camp, sending back one of the dwarf NPCs recruited from Hol Lodur, the ale’s point of origin.

Since I’d been using random encounters (something I tend to shy away from), I figured it was sensible to see if this dwarf NPC encountered anything on his way back to Hol Lodur. A few dice rolls later (using the random wilderness encounter tables in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide) revealed that the paths of the dwarf and a hill giant intersected.

Many hours passed, and the NPC dwarf had not returned. The PCs followed the NPC dwarf’s tracks to where the hill giant attacked and captured the dwarf. The PCs then tracked the hill giant back to its lair. One PC, the fastest on horseback, raced back to Hol Lodur to get reinforcements. The rest of the party faced the hill giant. After a fierce battle in which the PC dwarf’s giant-fighting AC bonus did some heavy lifting, the PCs defeated the hill giant and its mate, rescued the dwarf from being roasted on a spit, and discovered a hoard of treasure. Also, three adolescent hill giants escaped by fleeing into tunnels leading deeper underground from the giants’ cave lair.

By the end of the session, the PCs were trying to figure out what to do with a bit more than a half-ton of coins and other treasure, gradually realizing that a simple find-and-retrieve mission has become quite complicated indeed.

Tags: C&C, game play