Not for the Phraint of heart

Pardon the punny title. 

I know Arduin, Bloody Arduin has full rules for PC Phraints, those delightful pre-Vrusk, pre-Thri-Kreen insect dudes from the mind of Dave Hargrave.  But I don't own that book and I wanted to make up my own race-as-class version anyway.  So click the link here for my draft rules for bug dude PCs: BX Phraints

Need a dumb campaign map?

So I'm over at the library, pawing the maps and atlases of the U.K. and Ireland and such.  I found a map you might like in The Reader's Digest Complete Atlas of the British Islands.  Dig the complete title from the title page:

Dang.  Even the shrimpy little Channel Islands get billing over Ireland.  That's some stone cold partisanship right there.  Anyway, dig this little inset map I found on page 83.

That map is extra crazy if you don't know that old maps are (literally) oriented with east up top instead of north.  Of course, for your campaign you could ignore that fact and place Ceylon at the North Pole.

I think my favorite feature of this map is that the Tigris and Euphrates don't seem to empty into anything in particular.

The Land of the Brutality is nice this time of year.

Anybody ever set a campaign on an album cover?  I found this little slice of joy while doing a google image search for Asgard Miniatures.

You can listen to one of the tracks here.  Warning: prog rock ahead.

Brown Basic

 So about a week ago I got over to Gryfalia's Aerie, the local game store with the overwrought name.  Most of the shop is dedicated to collectible style games and boardgames.  I saw two boardgames that have interested me, Battlestations and Super Dungeon Explore, but it's a rare day when I'm willing to plonk down sixty-five or one hundred bucks for a game.  They've got a nice little used section in the back room where I found just the rulebook for the 1991 D&D big Black Box set, the earliest version to try to turn D&D into a more boardgamey experience.  I played a bit of this version back in the early nineties, but I wasn't the DM and never saw the rules.

Because it was a component to a larger game, the guy behind the counter was baffled how to accurately price this booklet.  He spent nearly five minutes fiddling around on his computer, then let me have the book for free.  I'm still baffled about this decision.  I wanted to say "Hey, man, don't be so dependent on your magic glowy box!  Just spitball a number and we can discuss it!" but self-interest overrode my fear of robot overlords, so I left with a free game book.

So what we have here is a 64 page soft cover credited to Timothy B. Brown with art by Terry Dykstra (cover by Jeff Easley).  I honestly don't know who Timothy B. Brown is.  I've seen Dykstra's work in other TSR stuff of the same period.  Did he do some of the illos for 2nd edition AD&D?  More on the art in a bit.

Overall, the rules cleave pretty closely to the designs laid down by  Moldvay/Cook/Marsh in 1981.  Alignment is threefold, elf is a class, no cleric spells until second level, etc.  Here are the differences I've been able to suss out after several page-throughs:

• The Charisma reaction adjustment goes from -3 to +3 like all the rest of the stat modifiers, despite reaction rolls still using 2d6.
• All the class charts go to fifth level, with third level MU spells and second level cleric spells in the magic section.
• The Magic-User specifically notes that you get one new spell per level, but your spell book can hold more than that if you find other spells to transcribe.
• As was becoming more and more common in the period, PC depictions are gendered by class.  The cleric and elf characters are females, the other classes are depicted by males.  No Morgan Ironwolf here.
• Weapons are rated Small, Medium and Large.  Halflings can only use Small weapons (no using a regular sword in two hands) and Dwarves can only wield Small and Medium weapons, so they can't use battle axes.
• The warhammer and quarterstaff do d6 damage, instead of the d4 listed on the Moldvay charts.
• "Wooden doors can be burned or destroyed in 1d4 turns."
• A small section explains how to use THAC0.
• "Exhausted" foes are +2 to be hit, while you are -2 to hit if exhausted.  I'm still looking for a rule on how you become exhausted.
• Bed rest restores d4 points of damage.
• The spell lists aren't numbered for random selection.
• The monster section follows BX D&D (rhagodessa and thouls rather than beholders and succubi), but is abbreviated compared to the complete BX list.  Still, there's plenty of Expert level monsters that would be a serious challenge to a party of fifth level adventurers.  The monster power level compares favorably to the Holmes Basic monsters.
• The NPC Party entry in the monster section contains a special reaction chart: 2-5 Depart in Anger, 6-8 Negotiate, 9-12 Offer to buy or sell information.
• Spectre is spelled "specter".  I hate that.
• While we're on the subject of spectres, there's no vampire listing so spectres are the king undead in this edition.
• The magic items list is longer than Basic, shorter than Expert.  No dwarven thrower hammer, for instance.
• Instead of the Ring of Weakness, there's a bland "Cursed Ring" that's -1 on all saves.
• No intelligent sword rules.
• The Making a Dungeon section includes eight sample traps and eight sample "special items" (statue, moving wall, etc.).  These should be numbered for random roll, but aren't.
• Wandering Monster charts for levels 1, 2, 3, 4-5, and 6-7.  The level 4-5 chart includes Basilisk, Cockatrice and Medusa, while the 6-7 chart drops Medusa but adds Gorgon.  15% of all random encounters after level 3 turn your ass to stone.

All in all, I'd call it a perfectly functional version of the game.  Most of the changes are for the better.  Note that some of the post-Basic stuff is squeezed into this 64 page booklet by virtue of the fact that it is a rule reference primarily and not a teaching tool.  A set of cards that also come in the big black box explain how to get started with the game.  Without those, this would be a harder set to use to learn how to play D&D.  But as a rulebook for an experienced DM who prefers lower level games, Brown's version of Basic would be about perfect.

Let's look at some of the interior illos.  Instead of that fantastic mix of illos from Otus, Roslof, Willingham, Dee and LaForce, all the interior art is by Terry Dykstra.  Dykstra seems technically proficient, but more prosaic than his predecessors, perhaps akin to Jim Holloway but without the sense of humor.

Here we have the fighter and the elf from the chargen section fighting some humanoid dude.  I think it's supposed to be a hobgoblin, because this pic is in the monster section on the page opposite from its entry.  But this illo is right next to the lizard man write-up, so a newbie could be confused.  This is something the design team behind the '81 rules did right; you could usually tell from the context what illo went with what monster.

This is the MU and cleric from the chargen section.  I love illos of adventurers puzzling over maps.  It's one of the few in-game activities that the people playing the game do at the same time as their PCs.

"You stumble into a spacious chamber with at least ten exits."  The DM is a jerk.  Note the three torches.  Good dungeoneering illos should not assume ambient lighting.

I hate to end an otherwise positive review with a downbeat note, but I pretty much loathe the cover art. There's a dragon but not much in the way of a dungeon (compare to the cool background used on the Otus cover art).  The dragon looks way too humanoid (hand-like claws, arms attach at the shoulder like a person rather than a quadruped, snout too short or the perspective is screwed up on the face).  But the worst offense is the single protagonist fighting the dragon.  D&D is a group endeavor.  Putting one guy facing a dragon on the cover is selling the wrong experience.

Cover aside, Brown Basic totally works as a serious choice for a rules reference for DMs who prefer low level games or who want to reserve 6th level and above for something different than the standard (A)D&D approaches.

better dying, part 1

Most D&D characters are disposable.  They start out life as six throws of 3d6 and then die in the first encounter of their miserable lives.  I've got a buddy whose original group interpreted the term "name level" to mean that your PC doesn't need a personal name until they're a full-ranked Wizard, Lord, etc.  The last time I ran a campaign set in Mystara one player went through so many PCs that he started numbering replacements.  He went through several incarnations of a few different names.  The first couple were fairly ordinary monikers but I think 'Niantic Sphinctre' went into the teens.  If the sample page of the DM Adventure Log can be believed, Dave Cook went through quite a few dwarves named Fred.  (Click to embiggen.)

Given that we strew the dungeons of our campaigns will piles of corpses, it's unsurprising that we treat death so cavalierly.  I mean, check out this passage:

DM: "Black Dougal, you find out that you missed a tiny discolored needle in the latch.  Roll saving throw vs. Poison, please!"
Dougal (rolling): "Missed it!"
DM: "Black Dougal gasps 'Poison!' and falls to the floor.  He looks dead."
Fredrik: "I'm grabbing his pack to carry treasure in."

That's from page B59 of Tom Moldvay's 1981 Basic rules.  Stone cold.  They don't even check to see if he is actually dead before they start vulturing his stuff.  This is the rpg I started with, this is how I was taught dying worked in D&D.  No wonder I've got the blood of so many PCs on my dice-throwing hands.

But there's a couple of other things going on here.  One is the DM (and therefore Moldvay) undermining player agency by stealing Black Dougal's last words.  What if Kevin Hendryx wanted to say something else? I think PC death would matter a lot more if we made an effort to have some decent final words ready for our death.  I've often thought that Khan's/Ahab's curse would be useful to quote if your death was the fault of another PC.

 "From hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

But for general purpose death scenes I'd recommend keeping this formulation in your back pocket:

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

Obviously you'd want to swap out some awesome things your PC has seen.  This one works best in a FLAILSNAILS environment where you're probably adventuring with people who haven't seen the same exact horrors you have, which is why I have a version of it saved on my PC's charsheet, ready to go.

Of course, you can come up with your own final words, or steal them from some other source.  The important part is that we should put a little forethought into this, especially for beloved characters.  And DMs, give those players a chance to say something before they shuffle off this mortal coil.  You know, unless their death is particularly quick and/or grisly.  A smoldering skeleton probably won't have much to save.

Bonus image:

These last words are appropriate under any circumstances.

Non-boring Thieves Guilds

So there's this old Japanese computer system called the FM Towns, which was named after Nobel prize winning physicist Charles Hard Townes even though the spelling is different.  The other day I discovered that several early Ultima games were ported over to it, with some interesting new graphics.  Here's my favorite one:

That's what you see in the FM Towns port of Ultima I when you're about to encounter a Thief in a dungeon.  I love his skull T-shirt.  His pants and boots look like they're from a pro wrestler, which fits the dude's beefy physique pretty well.  And what the crap is he carrying?  Is that a baton, or maybe a length of pipe?

Remember that because of the limitations of the software, every thief in this game looks just like the guy above.  Someone is issuing skull t-shirts to these dudes.  At first I thought maybe that when you sign up to join the Thieves Guild they hand you a free t-shirt with the guild logo on it.  But then it struck me.  Just last week I re-watched a certain cinematic classic:

So here's the concept.  Thieves aren't a secret brotherhood family sneaky burglars in black cloaks.  Nor is the Thieves Guild some sort of the fantasy mafia.  Rather, it's a loosely connected confederation of petty criminal gangs, each with their own colorful outfits and traditions. Each of these component gangs was founded by some name level thief and the 2d6 random punks that showed up when he built his hideout.  Some high-Charisma Cyrus figure with a lot of heavy muscle keeps the Guild together as best as he can, but petty breeches of the Truce are common.  

This scheme works particularly well for the Encounter Critical version of Sosaria that I've been working up, as the Criminal class in EC encompasses a lot more varieties of illegal activity besides sneak thievery.  I also like how this idea flips the normal expectations about the Thief in D&D play: Instead of the cowardly figure in the dark cloak, a thief is now a flamboyant, colorful character who struts around like he owns the place.

To really make this version of the Thief work the DM needs to be prepared to make some rival gangs for thief PCs to squabble with.  Statting up the rest of the PCs gang also sounds like a good idea.

Now can you dig it?

Twenty Questions: Sosaria

The first couple of Ultima computer RPGs included a hodgepodge of sci-fi elements mixed into the fantasy stuff that later became the norm.   I thought that mashy-upedness would make the setting of the earlier games ideal for some Encounter Critical nonsense, particularly the Lands of the Feudal Lords in Sosaria during the time period between the death of the Mondain (big bad of Ultima I) and the rise of  the Ultima II villain, his apprentice/girlfriend (a pretty creeped up combo if you ask me), Minax the Enchantress.  My old twenty quick questions article was designed for D&D games, but I thought I'd see how well it fit in this case.

What is the deal with my cleric's religion?

You won't be playing a local cleric, since there's no such class in Encounter Critical.  The divine and the magical aren't split and religion isn't a major factor in most folks' day to day lives.  Only warlocks and other weirdos get involved in religion, by joining cults (more on that below).

Where can we go to buy standard equipment?

Any town and most villages will have traders happy to sell you all sorts of stuff.  What counts as 'standard' equipment in Encounter Critical is a matter of debate.

Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?

Any town ought to have a smith capable of the job, but waltzing about with a big scary pet monster might get you noticed by the burly and surly guards.

Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?

Everybody used to agree to on this answer, but Mondain has been dead for five years.  No doubt powerful wizards dwell in the City of Magic in the Frozen North, beyond the area depicted in the map above.

Who is the greatest warrior in the land?

The Black Knight, once a chivalrous hero that Mondain turned to the dark side, he now wanders the land committing acts of banditry and mayhem.

Who is the richest person in the land?

Probably one of the Feudal Lords, the Monarchs of Rondorlin and Barataria, but rumor has it that certain clans of mountain dwarves possess gold beyond the dreams of avarice.

Where can we go to get some magical healing?

Most towns and many villages have local healers who use either herblore or minor psychic abilities to heal minor injuries, for a modest fee of course.

Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?

More serious injuries and conditions should probably be referred to a member of the Cult of Truth, a group of warlocks specializing in white magic.

Is there a magic guild my Magic User belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?

There are lots of cults, sects and secret societies, many possessing magical lore unknown to others.  Newly created warlocks may begin play with a bonus spell by rolling on a random cult list, which includes mainstream groups like the Cult of Truth and the Cult of Runes to more obscure groups to outlaw orders like the Disciples of Mondain.

Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?

Castle Rondorlin and Castle Barataria sound like good places to look.

Where can I hire mercenaries?

Experience sellswords are pretty common at all the towns, unless the monarchs are at war again.  And it isn't difficult to find young farmers who can be lured into henchwork with tales of adventure.

Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?

Civilized society recognizes the utility of magic and the practicality of arming oneself, but some of the more backward villages might have strange local ordinances.

Which way to the nearest tavern?

Taverns are the lifeblood of Sosaria.  A village is only a collection of adjacent peasant hovels without a public house to make it into a community.

What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?

Many villages and towns are plagued by local menaces, the defeat of which will no doubt make you the hero of the burg.  The Frozen North is home to the Great White Dragon, a major menace.

Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?

Now that Mondain is no longer threatening to take over the world Rondorlin and Barataria have resumed their age old rivalry for control of the realm.  They fight little skirmishy wars practically every year.  Raiders of the viking and/or goblin persuasion sometimes attack the northern coasts, while amazon warbands occasionally pillage the south.

How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?

No, but on the off years when the two kingdoms aren't at war at least one of them holds a tournament.

Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?

The Disciples of Mondain mentioned above, the Guild of Thieves, and perhaps others.

What is there to eat around here?

The steak is excellent.  Baratarian beef is known throughout Sosaria.

Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?

Mondain allied himself with the mysterious Starwalkers, who possessed arcane technologies beyond the kin of Sosaria's pseudo-medieval civilization.  Those guys left all sorts of cool crap laying around the joint.

Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?

Head north and seek out the castle of the Great White Dragon or plunge the depths of the dungeons in hopes of finding the treasure troves of balrogs and liches.