Spes Magna Games

The picture to the left above is the “Gnome Lair” map on page X62 of the 1981 printing of the D&D Expert Rulebook. The picture to the right is my version drawn isometric style with some changes happening because I reached the edge of the page and others being more thoughtful. (Clicking a pic embiggens it.)

My version is not a gnome lair. It might have been occupied by gnomes once upon a time, but no more. Now strange magical forces have turned the lair into a dangerous maze. Notice there are two sets of keyed areas: those with Roman numerals and those with Arabic numberals. Let’s start with latter.

Those Arabic Numerals

When an explorer gets line of sight on an area marked with an Arabic numeral, roll 1d10 before describing what the explorer sees. On a 10, the explorer sees a dead end. Otherwise, he or she sees whatever is at the indicated area. For example:

Eric (playing Agios): Agios descends the stairs cautiously while Cinder and Tupke wait in the hallway above.

Mark (the GM): Agios nears the bottom of the steps. (Mark rolls 1d10 and gets a 6.) He sees that after the landing, the hallway advances about ten feet and then turns to the right. (Mark makes note that if Agios continues, he’ll end up leaving the area marked “6” and advancing down the hall.

Every time a numbered area is not within line-of-sight, the magical effect resets. For example, if Agios continues down the hallway to the intersection, and then returns to area 6, Mark would roll 1d10 to see to where (if anywhere) the path now leads.

Those Roman Numerals

Whenever an explorer triggers the magic at an area marked with an Arabic numeral, there is a 1 in 6 chance that some randomly determined monster or monsters will be summoned. If so, consult the appropriate table, and then roll 1d6 to see in which area marked by a Roman numeral the encounter appears. These monsters behave appropriately for their type, and they too may decide to explore, triggering Arabic numerals areas appropriate.

Mark rolls 1d6 and gets a 1. He consults the specially prepared random encounter table, rolls 1d8+1d12 and another 1d6. As a result, two grells appear at Roman numeral I, not too far from where Agios might be heading should he choose to continue without the party.

Tags: game play, place of power

What I hope is the final round of edits to The Four Color Hack are in the hands of the erstwhile young lady who’s helping me with all that techy stuff needed for print-on-demand (POD). I received proof copy last week. Overall, it looks good, but there were some problems that must be addressed. (See the pics to the right for examples; clicking a pic embiggens it.)

This whole POD process has been a wee bit arduous. Of course, if I hadn’t gotten ripped off by The Formatting Service What Shall Not Be Named, I’d not be about a month behind where I thought I’d be, but c’est la vie and caveat emptor. When The Four Color Hack does hit the interwaves for sale as a POD book, it’ll sell for no more than $12 (which includes the PDF as well, of course).

In other exciting news, did you know that the first and only season of Street Hawk is watchable via Amazon Prime? I’ll give you a moment to catch your breath. I loved this show when it was on TV way back in the year I graduated from high school. Rex Smith had great hair, a dazzling smile, and that snotty, faux insouciance that still makes me giggle a little. I remember a handwritten Marvel Super Heroes character sheet based on Street Hawk. Not sure if I ever got to play him or not, but I hope I did.

Therefore, the Road Raptor, a complete superhero for The Four Color Hack!

The Road Raptor

This is Jesus Comacho, an ex-motorcycle cop, injured in the line of duty. Now a police troubleshooter, he’s been recruited for a top secret government mission to ride the Raptor — an all-terrain attack motorcycle designed to fight urban crime, capable of incredible speeds up to three hundred miles an hour, and immense firepower. Only one man, federal agent Titus Normandy, knows Jesus Camacho’s true identity. The man…the machine…the Road Raptor!

STR 13, DEX 14, CON 13, INT 10, WIS 9, CHA 12

Level 1
Hit Points 14
Fortune 10
Base Damage d6
Vigor 2
Idioms Motorcycle Cop, Hot-Headed Daredevil

Crash Suit
* Powers: Advanced Synthon-Weave Suit d6 (4 armor), Helmet Sensor Array d8
* Limitation: The Road Raptor has a bum leg from being injured in the line of duty. This leg still gives him trouble from time to time.

The Raptor
* Powers: All-Terrain Capabilities d6, Hyperefficient Engine d12, Immense Firepower d10
* Limitation: The Raptor is an experimental AT-AM. Its systems are not always stable, and Titus Normandy constantly tinkers with it when it’s not deployed.

Tags: Spes Magna Products, TFCH

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

If you follow this site (and why wouldn’t you?), you’ve certainly noticed that I’ve lately posted a bunch of material, mostly new monsters, for 5E D&D. Why? Well, because that’s the game that my Saturday group currently plays, and I tend to focus most of my writing on whatever most recently has caught our attention. I’m even enjoying 5E, which is a surprise. Nothing I read about 4E, for example, tempted me to give it a test drive. 5E, however, hits a lot of sweet spots while at the same time staying away from the number-crunching, optimal-build-fetishizing that, in my opinion, has come to dominate 3.5 and Pathfinder.

All that said, I still want to play what I started with.

I’ve already talked a bit about how I got started with D&D. That was way back around 1977 to 1978. (I feel old.) We had some great games back then. The rules we had didn’t always make sense, and we argued about what this or that really meant, but in the end we were friends getting together to pretend we were adventurers in a fantastic world that at times seemed so much more interesting than the lower-middle-class, middle school world of broken families, drugs, and even gangs that existed at least on the peripherals of our lives.

I recently hosted a comedy-of-tech-errors game that used Swords & Wizardry with The Keep on the Borderlands, originally published in 1981, about three years after I started gaming and about four years before I graduated high school. We played via a videoconference system. The first session was just my son Christopher and me, but Mike and his son joined for session two. Mike was one of the people I gamed with way back when. He’s in California now, and that too far to drive to from Texas, so I don’t see Mike much. If you’re interested, you can watch the videos over at my YouTube channel.

Thanks to the quirky benefits of technology, I got to game with Mike again. It was a lot like old times, almost as if no time had really passed, although both he and I are noticeably older. Those friends I gamed with back in middle school and high school have either died too young or else have pretty much dropped out my life (or me out of theirs) completely. My current circle of face-to-face gaming friends? I didn’t know them in high school. Some of them weren’t born or else were toddling around in diapers when I was in high school.

So, I think I’m going to keep on with the Borderlands game. I’m pretty sure I can swing the various schedules so that we can meet twice or so a month. I might have to upgrade some of my technology. Maybe headphones or earbuds or something like that to help cut down on the background noise would be a good place to start.

Who knows? I might even try to figure out how Roll20 works.

But enough of that. “How about a new monster?” you say. Sure, but first check out David Masson over at Art Station. This guy has some serious talent. Today’s new monster is based on this piece by Mr. Masson.

The secrets of building a sword golem have been lost in the foggy reaches of history. While a spirit from the Elemental Plane of Earth usually infuses a golem, sword golems differ, for it is a spirit from the Elemental Plane of Air that gives the sword golem not only life, but also remarkable speed, intelligence, and will, albeit a will subordinated to the wishes of its creator.

Sword Golem
Medium construct, lawful neutral

Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 68 (8d8+32)
Speed 45 ft.
Ability Scores STR 16 (+3), DEX 19 (+4), CON 18 (+4), INT 10 (+0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 10 (+0)

Skills Acrobatics +8, Perception +5
Damage Resistances lightning
Damage Immunities fire, poison, psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with adamantine weapons
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages understands and speaks the languages of its creator
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)

Elegant Defense. At the start of its turn, the sword golem may choose to make fewer than six melee attacks. The benefits of its elegant defense depend on how attacks it forgoes:

* One Attack: When a creature misses the sword golem with a melee attack, the sword golem can use its reaction to riposte. The sword golem makes a melee attack against the creature that inflicts an extra 4 (1d8) points of piercing damage.

* Two Attacks: As above, plus sword golem’s AC against melee attacks increases by 2 points until the start of its next turn.

* Three Attacks: As both effects above, plus the sword golem’s elaborate sword maneuvers defend its allies. When a creature the sword golem can see attacks a target within 5 feet of the sword golem, the creature’s attack is made with disadvantage.

Elemental Absorption. Whenever the sword golem is subjected to fire damage, it takes no damage and instead regains a number of hit points equal to the fire damage dealt. Whenever the sword golem is subjected to lightning damage, it takes half damage and becomes energized. On its next turn, its rapier attacks inflict an extra 4 (1d8) lightning damage.

Immutable Form. The sword golem is immune to any spell or efect that alter its form.

Magic Resistance. The sword golem has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Magic Weapons. The sword golem’s weapon attacks are magical.

Actions

Multiattack. The sword golem makes up to six melee attacks.

Rapier. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) piercing damage. The sword golem’s rapiers score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

Gust of Wind (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). The sword golem unleashes a line of strong wind that duplicates the spell gust of wind.

Tags: 5E D&D, game play, monsters, Swords & Wizardry

I’ve written about just using bears instead of writing up new monsters more than once (for example, see here and here). This isn’t a new idea, and I’m certainly not the first person to just use bears.

Recently on the Facebook in a 5E D&D group, a poster asked about how “to still keep goblins challenging without a fireball wiping them all.” I posted this link to a PDF with four goblins, CRs 1/8 to 2. The goblins are really just quickly done versions of kobold, orcs, bugbears, and a generic druid. I did a little bit of tweaking with ability scores, and that’s about it.

After the picture, you’ll find two more goblins that are really just slightly modified other monsters.

Goblin Hag
Small humanoid (goblinoid), lawful evil

Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 72 (11d6+33)
Speed 30 ft.
Ability Scores STR 12 (+1), DEX 18 (+4), CON 16 (+3), INT 13 (+1), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 14 (+2)

Skills Arcana +3, Deception +4, Perception +4, Stealth +6
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Common, Draconic, Goblin
Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Amphibious. The goblin hag can breathe air and water.

Innate Spellcasting. The goblin hag’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will: dancing lights, minor illusion, vicious mockery

Mimicry. The goblin hag can mimic animal sounds and humanoid voices. A creature that hears the sounds can tell they are imitations with a successful DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check.

Actions

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage plus 2 (1d4) acid damage.

Illusory Appearance. The goblin hag covers herself and anything she is wearing or carrying with a magical illusion that makes her look like another creature of her general size and humanoid shape. The illusion ends if the goblin hag takes a bonus action to end it or if she dies.

The changes wrought by this effect fail to hold up to physical inspection. For example, the goblin hag could appear to have smooth skin, but someone touching her would feel her rough, warty flesh. Otherwise, a creature must take an action to visually inspect the illusion and succeed on a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check to discern that the goblin hag is disguised.

Invisible Passage. The goblin hag magically turns invisible until she attacks or casts a spell, or until her concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). While invisible, she leaves no physical evidence of her passage, so she can be tracked only by magic. Any equipment she wears or carries is invisible with her.

Two-Headed Goblin
Medium humanoid (goblinoid), lawful evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 75 (10d8+30)
Speed 40 ft.
Ability Scores STR 17 (+3), DEX 12 (+1), CON 16 (+3), INT 6 (-2), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 8 (-1)

Skills Perception +4
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Common, Giant, Goblin
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the two-headed goblin hits with it (included in the attack).

Two Heads. The two-headed goblin has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious.

Wakeful. When one of the two-headed goblin’s heads is asleep, its other head is awake.

Actions

Multiattack. The two-headed goblin makes two attacks: one with its battleaxe and one with its morningstar.

Battleaxe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+3) slashing damage.

Morningstar. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+3) piercing damage.

Tags: 5E D&D, adventure design, monsters