This is the best dungeon video game I have seen in a long time.

Faking Campaign Depth Using Your Stupid Game Collection

If you're anything like me (which I can't necessarily recommend) you have a large enough array of print and PDF roleplaying products that you'll never use all of them. Here's a way you can get some juice out of that archive of rpg junk. Maybe doing this will even help you feel better about blowing all that money on game crap.

Anyway, here's the basic idea: let's say I have something I want to add a little background color to. This could be a magic item, a character, or any other little campaign element that could be spruced up. You rarely need a fullthroated background for this sort of thing, a line or two will do. Like, I want to add some spice to a nice magic sword in a treasure trove. This sword isn't a key plot point, but it's +3 and so will likely stick around for the long haul. A little flavor text could shift the player reaction to it from "+3! hot damn!" to "this is the coolest sword I have ever owned."

So I have the old Dragon magazine CD-Rom set with PDFs of the first 250 issues of that venerable institution. (They're probably all a google search away nowadays.) So use the last line on the WotC die roller (my other favorite Wizards product for the last decade or so) to randomly determine a number between 1 and 250. I get a 75, so I pull up issue #75. I also randomly determine a page and end up on ad for two modern era modules, the Cold War adventure Border Crossing and the pulpy Adventure of the Jade Jaguar. 

Repeat the process and I get issue #229, which I think was after I stopped reading every issue. The random page I get is another ad, this time for Games Day '96 in Baltimore, featuring the Golden Demon Awards. A third set of rolls gets me to the second page of "Playing the Political Game," Mike Beeman's article on political adventures in AD&D, from issue #90. Here's an excerpt from an example Beeman uses:

Lord Valdis von Wodinskirk of Karmagia... sandwiched between the much larger and stronger fiefdom of Luxor and the foreboding Suss Forest. Karmagia’s sole asset was gold--the territory sat on a mother lode--but Valdis could neither entice merchants to Karmagia nor send his own caravans to town because... incessant highway robbery.

So putting this stuff together with a bit of judicious tweaking and a pinch of pixe dust, that plain sword +3 now becomes something like this:

Sword of Valdis: this +3 longsword was reputedly forged in the Second Age by the golden demon Grazzmathax, how it came into the possession of the nobleman Valdis of Karmagia is unclear. He wielded it in numerous border disputes with the Count of Luxor and battles with bandits. Both the sword and Valdis disappeared on an ill-fated expedition to locate the legendary Temple of the Jaguar.

Okay, maybe that's not the "coolest sword ever" as I promised above, but it's certainly better than a +3 and nothing else. For extra funtimes, add Karamgia and Luxor to a corner of your campaign map, sprinkle some rumors about the Temple of the Jaguar about the place, and write up the stats for Golden Demons of the Second Age.

You don't even need a run of Dragon mags or a die roller to use this simple technique. A couple of random pulls from a shelf full of miscellaneous gaming stuff will do the trick.

The Secret Doors of Arduin

David Hargrave was one of the seminal original dungeon masters who took OD&D, made it into something his own, and shared his vision of fantasy roleplaying with the world. In this regard he should be remembered among such luminaries as Steve Perrin and Ken St. Andre. His original Arduin Grimoire series is a glorious mess. I'd never attemot to run it "as is" any more than I would try to run OD&D straight, but there is a lot of stuff worth looting from them, whether it be the crazy classes and races, over-the-top monsters, kewl magic items and spells, or the awesome-as-heck critical chart.

Although I am a big Arduin fan, I have never been a fan of Hargrave's dungeon maps. To me, they look like big ol' overdone messes. Here's the first one I encountered, from the inside back cover of the original Grimoir:

My first thought when looking at this map is always holy crap, those room designs are terrible! How much time would be wasted describing these rooms to a mapper? I dunnon, maybe David draws the party map for them (which I have done in some games) or uses miniatures with pre-made room tiles. Even the latter would take a lot of time to create before the session. I'm not against odd-shaped dungeon chambers, but in my opinion they have a greater impact on the game when sprinkled lightly among square and rectangular rooms.

My second thought is always and what is up with all those dange secret doors?!? That single level has like 50 secret doors and I just don't. get. it. I like secret doors. They add a lot of fun to a dungeon level because they can accomplish many different things:

• You can hide a major treasure behind one
• A sneaky monster can have its lair behind one
• Big Bad Guy's can get away by passing through one
• During an encounter some reinforcements can show up from an unexpected direction, catching the party unaware
• You can roll for extra wandering monsters while the players search for one

But the best thing about secret doors is the wicked glee on the players' faces when they find and use one. Some player just get a naughty thrill of finding something hidden and/or going someplace forbidden. But to make that work, you need to space the secret doors out a bit. Two to five per level is adequate for most purposes. I honestly don't understand what Hargrave is trying to accomplish by placing a secret door in darn near every room and corridor. 

But a map without the context of a dungeon key makes it harder to judge the logic at work here, So I decded to tale a closer look at one of Hagrave's modules. Arduin Dungeon #2: The Howling Tower is Hargave's intro advaneture, suitable for parties of first through fourth level. It is also where my alltime favorite Erol Otus illustration was published:

The essence of D&D in one illo.

Anyway, I decided to take a level from the Howling Tower and color in all the areas that could be accessed without passing through a secret door, just to see what I could see.

So what gives? Most of the areas that can only be reached via secret door are empty rooms of a single 10' square or smaller. I tend to imagine those small spaces are restrooms, janitorial closest, the room with the server stack, etc. Imagine opening a secret door only to reveal a 10' by 10' room with nothing but a skeleton switching out the filter on the furnace.

Despite the abundance of secret doors, there are really only four interesting things concealed by them. Two of the three staircases to other levels are behind secret doors. In fact, the one direct access from this level down to level B (i.e. from first to third level) is hidden behind 2 secret doors coming from the north or three secret doors approaching from the east! If I was to use this dungeon as is, I would go through the key and try to find some ne'er-do-wells who could use this hidden access to cause mischief for the party.

Two stocked rooms are also inaccessible unless the party finds the relevant secret doors. One of them has some nice treasure in an invisible treasure chest guarded by an Ice Tiger, which is the exact sort of monster you think it is. Similarly, Room Five has a nice treasure sitting in the middle of the room, guarded by an armored ogre who has just drunk a potion of speed. I suppose there's nothing wrong with hiding these rooms, but nothing really sets them apart from other rooms on the level. Room Two, for example, has a treasure chest guarded by a skorpadillo (pictured above) hiding behind an illusion.

So I'm not sure I've learned anything about Hargrave's dungeon design logic by this exercise, but doing it has made me think more about my own use of secret doors and room shapes. Nothing wrong with that.

quick question

On a scale of one to ten, how big of a jerk is this sorcerer, in your opinion?

 

Three Solo Adventures

 So yesterday was my first real day off since the Fall semester began and I decided to spend some of it playing some solo adventures.

The first adventure was "Eye of the Dragon," the solo adventure found in Ian Livingstone's Dicing with Dragons. This book is an introduction to roleplaying and buyer's guide from the 1980's. The solo adventure uses a system I've not encountered elsewhere, but I've never played a lot of solos RPGs. I tried this adventure once in the late 80's and got killed by an orc or something like that.

This time I rolled well on the three 3d6 throws for character generation. Dubbing my new PC Hawkins the Bold, I fought and defeated giant rats, an orc, a goblin, and a vampiress. I won and lost several cool treasures, only to ultimately succumb to poisonous gas.

The Solo Dungeon by Richard A. Bartle dates from 1978. You can bring up to six newly created D&D characters on this adventure. It doesn't specify if it was designed for OD&D, Holmes Basic D&D, or then-new AD&D. I decided to make a half dozen OD&D characters, using just the first three books. Here was my party:

• Cliffbert the Clumsy (a human fighter with a low Dex)
• Egelar the Elf (who I ran as a magic-user)
• Umberto the Unbearable (a cleric with a low Cha)
• Dimwald the Dim (a cleric with a low Int)
• Frodric the Foolish (a dwarf with a low Wis)
• Mortimer the Mediocre (a magic-user whose stats were all 8-12)

Both fighters were slain by wights (yikes!). Umberto was eliminated by a trap. Egelar touched a magic sword of opposite alignment and dropped dead. My biggest victory was when Mortimer charmed a Theurgist, who later slept an ogre. After the adventure Mortimer and Dimwald ditched the Theurgist (who I named Theobald) and then parted ways, as lawful Dimwald couldn't brook neutral Mortimer's cutthroat shenanigans. Still, both came out of the dungeon alive, with a few hundred GP, some nice XP, and a magic-item each. I may take one or both to Dragon's Hall, a D&D solo module from Judge's Guild.

By the way, you can try this adventure for yourself, as the author hosts scans of all the pages online.

My last solo adventure was for Tunnels & Trolls, well known for its solo suitability and large range of solo adventures. I used the 5th edition rules to make a dwarf fghter named Doin the Unlikeable. Armed with a bigass flail and a sturdy shield, Doin set off for legendary Buffalo Castle, the first T&T solo adventure. Thanks to my low charisma, I ended up annoying an orc and we had to fight to the death. Doin went berserk (one of the more interesting T&T rules is that anyone with an Int less than 16 can go berserk in combat) and beat the orc into a fine red paste. This led to enough treasure that I wanted to escape to buy some dang armor before trying any more adventures. But a giant jellyfish blocked the castle exit. Thanks to multiple rounds of berserking earlier, Doin was too weak to effectively wield his flail. So he had to crush the jellyfish with his crowbar, which he could barely lift. That was rad. I never saw anything like that in a D&D game.

Happy Holidays, Peace on Earth, and a Morphistic Quiznox to Our Allies on Rigel 7.

It's the Joe Fighter Cinematic Universe

Remember this guy from the cover of OD&D Supplement I: Greyhawk? Well, I guess he survived this encounter with a beholder, as it looks like he later fights a dragon in the pages of the original edition of Advanced Melee for The Fantasy Trip.

I assume he has his dragon-killin' sword out, which he brought special for this fight, and his regular day-to-day killing sword is the extra one at his side.

 

absolutely no one needs this

Rules for Converting Encounter Critical PCs to Tunnels & Trolls

Key Attributes

• Strength, Dexterity, and Luck remain the same.
• Intellect becomes your Intelligence score.
• Leadership becomes your Charisma
• You get the choice of either using your Dex score or rolling 3d6 for your Speed, but you must pick before you roll the dice.
• Either your Adaptation or your Robot Nature score become your Constitution, whichever is higher.
• Either your ESP or Magic Power score become your Wizardry, whichever is higher.

Professions

• Psi Witches become Rogues, unless they qualify to be a Paragon (f.k.a. Warrior-Wizard), in which case they can be one of those.
• Doxies, Criminals, Pioneers, and Encountresses can become their choice of either a Rogue or a Specialist.
• Warlocks become Wizards.
• Warriors remain Warriors (duh).

Levels Past One

For each level past one, the character gets a bonus number equal to their level which can be spent on any one of the following:

• Add the bonus number to Strength.
• Add the bonus number to Constitution.
• Add half the bonus number to Strength and half to Constitution.
• Add half the bonus number to any other stat.

When halving for purposes above, any fractional points are lost. Additionally, each level up must be spent individually, e.g. a third level PC must first spend 2 points and then 3 points.

Spells

• Newly converted Wizards get access to all the spells available up to their level, even if they cannot qualify due to low Int or Dex. Exception: If the referee is allowing the Wizard to keep their old Warlock spells, they only get access to the first level list.
• Newly converted Rogues get one first level spell per every character level they possess.

Equipment

• Any item on both the EC and T&T lists may be retained. 
• If the item in question is a weapon or armor that the PC can no longer use due to new Str or Dex minima, they may take a free downgrade to a lesser but equivalent item.
• Any items not in both the EC and T&T rules are subject to the Dave Arneson City of the Gods spot rule*: each PC may pick three items to retain. The nature and extent to which they continue to function in the new setting are the sole discretion of the referee.

*Gary Gygax once brought his PC Mordenkainen to visit Arneson's game for an expedition to the legendary City of the Gods. Dave saw the vast number of magic items on Gary's charsheet and was underwhelmed. He immediately ruled that Gary could bring any three of them and a potion of extra healing. A recounting of these events used to be on the intarwebs somewhere but at the moment I can't find the dang thing.