The Tao of Steve (Part 2)

[continued from here]

Steve has played D&D before, though not with me. Since I didn’t get to know Steve till ’88 or ’89, and we didn’t game together till 1990 or ’91 I would guess Steve-O’s first intro to D&D was either Mentzer or (more likely) 2nd edition AD&D. Steve was never a “Dungeon Master” himself and didn’t own any of the game systems or books (with the exception of SpellJammer which he handed off to me years ago). Steve IS and always has been a voracious reader of fantasy and science fiction, and losing himself in another person’s fantasy world was always more fun (for him) than trying to create your own.

I also know the kids he played D&D with…they were neighbors of his who eventually went to the same high school as Steve and I. As they were at least two years our junior (both were in my brother’s class) this as much as anything leads me to believe they were NOT playing 1st edition AD&D. And I doubt it was Mentzer since I remember Steve-O telling me he’d had a penchant for rangers.

Anyway, it took him a little while getting used to the whole B/X vibe…I ended up “setting him straight” on a few issues:

- Two-thirds the way through the character creation process he said: “Wait, I just remembered! You forgot to ask us what we are!” What do you mean...you’re a barbarian right? “No but I mean like an elf or a dwarf or whatever.” Cue discussion on why alien species are not human and don’t have various occupations (and why dwarves aren’t short Norwegians or any other stereotype), and he got it.

- While writing up his character: “Don’t I need to pick skills or something?” You have all the skills you need. What, do you want boat-building or fire-making or something? You’ve got it. “But don’t I get more skills as I go up in level?” Your abilities like Climb Walls goes up…other abilities are based on your class or ability score. “Ok.”

- While choosing equipment: “What are the differences between weapons?” Two-handed weapons strike last in combat, but add twice your strength bonus. “I don’t get it…so what about a two-handed sword?” AB explains: they all do the same damage, but if you’re strong you can hit for more power with the two-hander, just slower. “Well, why would anyone buy a two-handed sword?” I explain swords carry more status and prestige. Steve: “Screw that. I’ll buy the two-handed staff…it’s only 2 gold pieces and I’m poor. Oh, wait…but then I can’t use a shield!” You can buy a back-up weapon that’s one handed. Steve buys a club, and Thundarr is a mohawked caveman.

All of this was quite entertaining, to say the least. We decided as a group that Thundarr’s “staff” was actually just a two-handed piece of hardwood, wrapped and banded as a great club. He was so broke (he had very little coin and spent most of it on chainmail and shield) that he couldn’t afford a backpack or rations, but he did get a small sack “for carrying any game I kill” along with a water skin and a dagger “for throwing” (‘Is that a separate skill?’ No!).

Unlike past groups’ expedition to the Keep on the Borderlands, Cain and Thundarr took no interest in the menu at the tavern (yes, it was the first place they went and, yes, they were attempting to hire mercenaries)…mainly because they were almost flat broke (Cain had 1 or 2 gold pieces and Thundarr had zero). After completely failing to hire any of the local men-at-arms looking for employment, they made the acquaintance of a halfling named…oh, I don’t remember his name. He was fairly well-off and had plate mail with an expensive, tassel-adorned greathelm. He also had a strength of 5 and a dexterity of 7 and had been left behind by his prior adventuring party who didn’t think he’d be able to pull his own weight. He was looking for buddies to adventure with and readily signed on with Cain and Thundarr, even treating them to a tasty meal and flagon of mead with which to toast their success.

The next morning they set out. The two day journey to the Caves of Chaos was uneventful, and I read the setting description from the module as the sun began its descent behind the western wall of the canyon. Steve pricked up his ears at the description of the carrion bird sitting in a tree. “Can I hit it with my dagger?” You want to throw your dagger at it? “Yeah, is that allowed?” Of course, roll to hit. Thundarr rolls a strike, skewering the vulture with a deft over-hand throw. The halfling and bounty hunter gape at the barbarian’s casual violence. “Hey, we have to eat…and I couldn’t afford any rations, remember?”

Steve asks if he has skill in “skinning” the bird and readying it for the cook fire. Sure, I say, you have “pluck and dress game” at 75% and “smoke meat” at 55%...write it on your character sheet. Steve does…maybe he’s played too many MMORPGs or something. AB just laughs. Both the bounty hunter and halfling decline partaking of the vulture meat as they have plenty of iron rations. Thundarr uses the grease and fat drippings from the bird to keep his barbaric mohawk in place, ties off a few feathers and attempts to preserve the extra bird meat as jerky…in his small sack. The party assigns watch shifts for the evening and then settles down for the night.

The next morning, Thundarr scales the cliff to one of the lower caves and, using the bounty hunter’s rope, hauls the other party members up. After arranging marching order and light sources they begin exploring the complex, first taking the right-hand corridor and then (at a second intersection) the left. “From now on, we should ONLY take left-hand tunnels so that we don’t get lost.” I don’t remember who suggested this. AB was NOT mapping that day as he had with Castle Q, content to allow Steve-O to lead while he illustrated the player characters.

The left hand tunnel curved around to the left again and ended in a dead end. “We search for secret doors,” says Steve. “And traps!” says ABles. There are neither present but I roll anyway. Steve: “We keep searching until we find something!” Reviewing the module notes I see there’s a pretty darn good chance of running into a random goblin patrol and I start rolling for them. They show up immediately…fortunately the party is NOT surprised.

“I throw my dagger at one!”

This time Thundarr’s knife does minimal damage, and he draws his two-handed stick. The nameless halfling (he had a name at the time…Rupert? Maybe) lunges forward at the goblins. The goblins need a 19 to hit Rupert and one manages to do just this, rolling maximum damage (6) and killing him as it hews his leg from hip with a wickedly curved blade. Cain kills the wounded goblin with a well-thrown blade of his own and Thundarr blasts two with a single attack roll due to my “follow-through” damage rule.

The following round the goblins break morale and flee. Thundarr smites one from behind and charges after them! Cain decides he wanted to hang back and try hiding in shadows with the hope of ambushing someone.

The two fleeing goblins lead Thundarr down the corridor…into a guard room with six more goblins. Un-surprised they attack, piercing his body with several spears. Giving a barbaric cry of rage, Thundarr swings mightily and fells three with a single blow! He was a savage Heracles whose club would long be remembered in goblin lore.

Caindong, following a little belatedly, sees the bloody melee and decides discretion is the better part of valor. However, he couldn’t remember the way out of the caves! “I flee down the right hand path!” This leads back to the dead end and Rupert’s mangled body. Cain decides to loot the halfling’s corpse of valuables.

Faced with the decision of drawing his shield and club or continuing to attack last in combat, Thundarr chooses to go with the Big Stick. The goblins pierce his body with spears, puncturing several vital organs. The barbarian died with a curse on his lips…a curse for the desertion of his companion who failed to back his play!

Cain, listening as the echoing noise to fade to silence, decided it was time to sneak out of the cave. Gathering what loot he had, he gingerly made his way back to the t-junction, this time taking the right-hand passage (which would have been the left-hand passage when previously fleeing). He blundered into two wandering goblins coming back from the cave entrance (where they had been searching for the barbarian’s missing companion). Achieving surprise over the hapless bounty hunter, the goblins lance him with spears ending his adventuring career almost as soon as it’d begun.

TPK achieved.

[a few notes: Steve did crumple his character sheet upon death, although again he wasn’t upset at me personally, just at dying in general. In fact, he was MORE peeved with my brother for failing to back him up. “We could’ve had those guys if you’d helped out!” “You seemed to have things well in hand,” AB lied lamely. Both wanted to immediately roll up new characters and go back into the dungeon. Unfortunately, I had beagles to walk and bathe before dinner. They DID manage to wheedle me into playing “just fifteen more minutes;” long enough to roll up new characters and do some hobnobbing at the Keep’s tavern.

Steve-O’s new dude is an Elf with a metal skull cap…another broke-ass dude (only 50 gold pieces!) he bummed 10 gp off AB’s character for a shield to go with his chainmail and sword. The elf’s name is Joachim, he has a strength of 12, an intelligence of 9, and a constitution of 7. On the other hand he has a dexterity of 13 and a charisma of 18! Oh, boy! His randomly rolled 1st level spell was Charm Person…let’s hope this lady-killer survives, as Steve-O already likes him twice as much as Thundarr.

AB’s new character is a 1st level Witch-Hunter named Lando who looks like Billy Dee Williams and sports a helmet like a Roman Centurion. His relationship with Joachim is “bitter rivals from a young age wanting to make each other look bad.” AB asked, why would I buy him a shield then? I explained he didn’t want Joachim to DIE…if the elf doesn’t survive you can’t show him up or compete with him anymore! That made sense to AB.

In de-briefing, Steve still had a tough time with ‘all weapons do the same damage.’ Shouldn’t a big sword do more damage than a club? I explained that all weapons were designed to kill and it didn’t matter whether your throat was torn out with a knife or a hand axe…which made sense to him. Though he DID see my “variable damage by class” as a more viable and representative option (to model how a knife in a fighter’s hands was more dangerous than one in a wizard’s). For now, he’s content to go with the D6 thing…we also talked about trying out the “dual wield” rules from the B/X Companion seeing as how his Elf has a high dexterity and two daggers would be cheaper than a sword. “But then, what would I do with my new shield?” We’ll just have to see next Thursday at the Baranof.]

; )

The Tao of Steve (part 1)

Steve is one of my best friends.

For whatever reason we’ve had something of a bond ever since we first met a couple decades ago. I say “for whatever reason” as we are different in a LOT of ways. In the past I was always “slim and trim” (something my wife would like me to get back to) while Steve was always a big meaty guy…these days Steve is still big but he’s a LOT slimmer (eating healthier, quit drinking, bicycles a lot). Our interests are also quite different: Steve-O enjoys the great outdoors (hiking, biking, etc.) while I am definitely an indoor cat (I put in my years as a Boy Scout in the Pacific Northwest when I was a kid…I prefer rain on my windows, not on my tent). Steve would probably be considered a “granola” if he didn’t have an insane love for cheap, fried chicken.

Other interests we don’t share include: astrology (me), role-playing games (me), fencing (me), Atlantean esoterica (me), beagles (me), marriage, etc. (me), live music shows (Steve), building space craft (Steve), electric bicycles/vehicles (Steve), kit-bashing computers (Steve), networking with folks/meeting new people/having social gatherings (Steve). In general, Steve is probably more progressive and forward-thinking than me (he thought I should try to develop my book into an App for the Droid), whereas I’m more old-fashioned, anachronistic, and interested in the past.

Of course, we do share the same Roman Catholic upbringing, the same liberal politics, the same dark/twisted sense of humor, and the same penchant for obsessive-craziness. We are also extremely tolerant of each other’s various flaws and foibles. Oh, and we both can really tear up the karaoke stage when we get the chance.

But in recent years there’s certainly been a wider gulf between us, mainly due to me being more “settled down” than I used to be. Not that my wife doesn’t love Steve (the three of us were once roommates), but I’ve settled in Greenwood and Steve is still comfortable being a bit of a rolling stone…and living in Mountlake Terrace. No comment on the latter.

So when Steve told me he wanted to get in on the Thursday night D&D game I was a little surprised. Not that Steve hasn’t played role-playing games in the past (in high school, he and I played Rifts together a number of times, and he’s also been a part of Vampire, Amber, and Ars Magica games I’ve run), but the last few years he’s regarded my role-playing interest with the same kind of disdain my brother has…as something I should have grown out of years ago (though Steve-O himself has a compulsive love affair with Sid Meier’s Civilization).

Probably the interest has more to do with the opportunity to hang out with both my brother and I at once. AB has become fairly good friends with Steve the last couple years, mainly due to partying in the same circles. The opportunity to play with BOTH AB and JB is apparently the temptation that broke the camel’s back (I had previously invited Steve to Dragonflight, Sundays at Gary’s, AND the Thursday Night meet-up with ECGF, all to no avail)…he had REALLY wanted to show up to our last game at Baranof’s, but had a roommate’s birthday that needed celebrating.

Friday, he had a free four hour stint between shifts and decided to drop by my house and play.

Since both AB and I were present and interested (we’ve had the D&D “bug” lately, ya’ know?) the game was on…unfortunately I was a bit wiped out from the evening before AND I was a little pressed for time due to having a few errands to run on my day off AND I had nothing prepared. Add to this that I had told AB the night before that I wanted to play-test some of the new character classes (his replacement for Shmutzy was a B/X Bounty Hunter), and start a 1st level campaign…well, it seemed to me a recipe for disaster. Disaster in terms of “oh, this is going to suck and Steve won’t want to play again.”

Except that didn’t happen.

Steve rolled up a B/X Barbarian (my current version, not the one previously posted to the blog) as a partner to AB’s bounty hunter. The relationship between the two characters: one had been down-and-out and the other had found him and sobered him up…now they were friends. Steve’s barbarian was named Thundarr (of course) and we randomly determined he had no hat, but a very proud Mohawk.

I found more than a bit of eerie similarity between their characters and Leiber’s Fafhrd and Mouser duo. Thundarr was Lawful in alignment, while Caindong (the bounty hunter) was Neutral. Both had wisdom scores of 7 though higher than average charisma scores. Thundarr’s best ability was strength (16) while Cain’s was Dexterity (13).

I decided I would fall back on my old stand-by: B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. Does this module ever get old? No, not really. You might as well call it a “timeless classic.” I’ve run it for three different groups (and five different parties!) in the last year-and-a-half…as a one-off or multi-session adventure it’s just fine and dandy, and it’s easy to use with pretty much zero prep time.

[and thinking about it just now with regard to my earlier post, if ANY module could make good use of a “random motivation chart,” B2 certainly could…it’s so wide open!]

House rules in effect included:

- All three random tables (Hats, Relationships, Deaths)
- No variable weapon damage (all weapons do D6)
- Two-handed weapons add double their strength bonus to damage (though striking last)
- MY “crit hit” rule (see below)
- MY “cleave” rule (see below)
- My new classes (of course)

The “crit” rule isn’t really a “critical anything”…it’s just something that’s developed over time, in play. Simple enough, when a PLAYER CHARACTER (not a monster) rolls a natural (un-modified) “20” to hit, I simply award maximum damage instead of rolling it. While I agree with Gygax’s sentiment on the whole value of “critical hits” (i.e. very little to possibly negative value) there’re a few reasons I do this:

- First off, everyone gets excited when a natural 20 is rolled: “Pow!” or “Sha-Zam!” is usually the reaction. Giving a slight bonus (maximum damage) makes it that much more special.

- Second (and in contrast), nothing is more frustrating than rolling a natural 20 and then seeing the damage dice come up a “1.”

- I’m not changing the abstract nature of D&D combat by creating a “spectacular hit” and doubling damage (i.e. breaking the rules), I am simply awarding the maximum POSSIBLE damage (it is possible the damage roll would have been a “6” anyway…I’m just making it a certainty).

- The rule doesn’t SLOW combat down (checking “critical threats” or rolling again to “prove the threat”), but actually SPEEDS it up (one less roll to make).

- It’s a set rule, not arbitrary or based on DM fiat (I’ve seen some DMs that make all sorts of wild side rulings based on how one rolls their “to hit” dice…from dropping weapons to getting them stuck in an opponent to doing double damage to knocking down opponent’s or costing them their attack or initiative in the following round). Simple and swift: roll a 20, score max damage.

- I see no reason to apply the same rule to monster attacks. One of Gygax’s issues with the idea that allowing critical hits would give monsters (with their endless, infinite spawning) an advantage against PCs with a random mechanical advantage. The solution: don’t give monsters the advantage. Monsters do NOT operate under the same rules as PCs in B/X. High hit dice monsters can damage creatures only harmed by magic weapons. Monsters use their own Attack Matrix, not based on class. Monsters (generally) don’t have ability scores and have abilities based on type, not level. Critical rolls are thus ONLY available to PC character classes (and perhaps NPCs belonging to an adventurer class).


Okay, while the “natural 20” roll may not be all that controversial, the “cleave” roll might be. When a character embroiled in melee with multiple opponents does more than enough damage to drop a foe, I allow the extra damage to “carry over” to additional opponents. This mainly comes into play when fighting small and weak humanoids. For example, when Meaty swung his hefty war hammer at the two kobolds trying to stick him, a high damage roll was enough to kill both kobolds twice over. Since the “attack roll” does not indicate a single swing but a flurry of blows and maneuvers, I had no compunctions with allowing him to down both “little dog men” with a single roll. It just makes the B/X combat faster and MORE streamlined.

Ugh…I can see already that this is turning into a two-part post. Ah, well. More fodder for the blog-o-sphere.

; )

B1 Aftermath: The De-Brief

[continued from here]

Despite killing off my brother's two characters in three weeks, and wiping out almost his entire cast, he was still willing to go back down into the dungeon and immediately rolled up a new character. However, we ended play for the evening, and I was willing to hold him off on going back to Castle Q. I wanted to move onto a new adventure, having sprung most of the "surprises" from B1 (I forgot, the final battle included a couple mummies as well...taken care of quickly by the party).

In de-briefing (i.e. on the way back from the bar), AB had no unkind words for the hand he'd been dealt. Talking to him again tonight, he still didn't. "It didn't stop me from playing the next day, did it? We're still playing again on Thursday, ja?" But this has often been my experience when DMing games...characters die but the players want to come back for more. Really. Even my poor wife, the FIRST time she played (not the Keep on the Borderlands adventure I described awhile back...a BECMI adventure in Threshold from either Mentzer Basic or Expert, played a few years back)...she rolled up three characters and had each of them killed in fairly quick succession, but kept wanting to play. Her main reason for not wanting to play RPGs has to do with her "becoming to attached to the characters."

Now contrast this with our experiments with Mordheim...possibly my favorite game ever published by Games Workshop. We played one match, and I destroyed her...and she never wanted to play again. For whatever reason there is a difference between playing someone one-on-one and acting as an "impartial referee." Even though I'm not gloating or yelling "In your face!" at my wife over a wargaming table...it's hard to watch one person's dice rolls remove individual playing pieces from a game board. A DM though...he (or she) is simply interpreting dice rolls and describing "what happens." The DM's not really trying to kill you off, is he?

Well...

Anyway, while I've had people crumple up character sheets at the table (which always annoys me...what if the character gets brought back to life with a spell?), I can't recall anyone who let the death of their character ruin the play of the game. Which is why it has always been weird to me that so many game groups make such an effort to keep player characters alive, fudging dice rolls and whatnot.

Not that I don't understand it...even my Old School buddy Kris has said, "Dying is no fun." BUT the Doctor also notes that "Dying is part of the game." You take character death off the table and the challenges...and the triumphs!...mean a lot less to the players.

Well, anyway, back to the debriefing of Thursday's game: though AB had no issue regarding his character's death, that's NOT to say he didn't have some complaints about the game...specifically, he felt there wasn't ENOUGH back-story.

The whole confrontation with Z and R had given him a momentary epiphany regarding the nature of Dungeons & Dragons in general. "What the hell ARE we doing here?" he asked. "Basically, we're not doing anything more than knocking over these guys' house!" Home invasion. Burglars. Nothing lofty or "heroic" regarding their actions at all.

Faced with the realization didn't make him want to quit the game, nor did it detract from the fun...after all, all his characters to date have been Neutral in alignment. He just hadn't really thought of the whole r'aison d'etre for being there in the first place. Yes, the adventurers were a group of members with varied skills seeking treasure, willing to risk their lives in dangerous situations...and looting some higher level adventurers' stronghold was a certainly part of their M.O.

However, it left him curiously un-satisfied at the end.

My brother wanted there to be more reason for his mission. More "backstory" is the term he used. "I got more backstory from the random rolls for how the characters knew each other! What we needed was more of THAT." He actually suggested I create random tables/charts for why they were in the dungeon in the first place.

Huh?

We were playing an adventure module...a modified one, but still a module. It presents a scenario...a reason for being there. A background is presented, and your characters are supposed to be motivated to be there. Treasure. Danger. The whole nine yards, ya' know?

It didn't seem enough to him.

On pondering, I guess it wouldn't have been enough for me either.

I'm going to consider the question more for our upcoming Thursday night game and think about what (if anything) I can do about it. Right now, I can only look at it in terms of myself and my feelings.

It's the same old chestnut, chewed over at the Forge multiple times, relating to the ability of story magically emerging in-play. For some people...maybe those over the age of 13 (15 or so for males) there's an interest in their RPG being about something. An idea that more is at stake here than simple house-breaking and tomb-robbing. And there's this great hope that when we are done with a play session, we can "look back on what we've wrought" and see some sort of existing coherent narrative tapestry...a "story" that has been created by the events of the game play.

It's tough to do this with RPGs not expressly built to facilitate this agenda...like Dungeons & Dragons. And yet, I'm not really ready to junk D&D in favor of an indie-fantasy RPG that addresses story directly...I prefer the abstract systems of B/X D&D as written for a fast-paced, exciting game that provides all the means one needs to create a fantasy world.

Maybe a random motivation or "kicker" chart IS needed. Certainly both the Hats and the Relationship tables have been highly successful so far.

The Last Expedition into the Unknown

[we'll have to see if this ends up being a two-parter post or not]

Thursday night, in continuation of last week's game, my brother ("Shmutzy the Sorcerer") led his band of merry men (and women) back to Castle Q...with a WAGON (Expert set page X9, description X10) pulled by four draft horses and the idea they were going to make a REAL dent in the treasure pool.

Going up to the cave entrance they found the door to the stronghold had been replaced with a shiny new one...heavy oak and brass bound.

Hmm, that's interesting, thought AB. But that's why we brought the dwarf along.

Grouch is unable to batter the thing down. "It appears to be barred and/or locked." Grouch still has his magic battle axe...you want to chop it down?

Nah, then they'll hear us coming. Wait can we set fire to it? We have oil...let's do that.

Yes, setting fire to the front door is a much more subtle way to make an entrance.

We both laugh at the thought of "smoking 'em out." Though, ABles still hasn't bothered to think about who "them" could possibly be. I know. Check out this false rumor made true:

(F) Zelligar and Rogahn have actually returned to their stronghold, and woe be to any unwelcome visitors!

I had decided over the course of the intervening week that the party had done enough damage in the stronghold on consecutive visits that Z and R had decided it was time to organize a defense against the invaders, who were sure to return.

Using his new and improved map Shmutzy and Co. made their way down the long corridor, ignoring the side alcoves, including the ones with secret doors (defensively places) already discovered by the party in prior expeditions.

We don't want to go that way this time...we're heading straight back to the treasure pool.

They found the end of the corridor blocked by sticky webs...as if from a giant spider. Hmm...

While still trying to decide what to do, a voice boomed out from beyond the webbing, "Who dares invade the stronghold of Zelligar and Rogahn? What business have you here besides trespass and base thievery?"

AB considered the question. Why the hell are we here anyway? We're basically just knocking over some dudes' house huh? Um, yeah. I guess he's got us dead to rights.

As Grouch approached the webs to try to cut through them, a trio of magic missiles struck him. At the same time a roar from behind signaled an attack from several ogres led by an enormous knight in shining armor!

All hell breaks loose.

Selma the witch uses her wand to polymorph an ogre into a scurrying rat before being felled by a second one. Carey and Grouch charge back to help out and Shmutzy launches a fireball from his own wand at the webs setting them on fire and illuminating the form of a cloaked and hooded figure beyond. Carey the halfling then charges the wizard who launches several spells (charm person, polymorph other), all of which are saved spectacularly. Shmutzy tosses a fireball into the ogres but Rogahn comes through nearly unscathed thanks to a ring of fire resistance...Grouch, on the other hand takes quite a blast and Rogahn caves in his his rib cage and several vital organs with a huge blow of his sword. The dour dwarf dies scowling.

Carey nearly manages to finish off Zelligar with a dagger blow. In the next round Z gains initiative and (panicking) shouts a word of magic and disappears. Damn, says AB, he can teleport too? Carey runs back to help Lady Troya with the remaining ogre. Rogahn pushes forward and hacks Shmutzy for minimal damage. The slash reduces the magic-user to half his hit points. Shmutzy casts mirror image and surrounds himself with a few friends.

Then: elation and disaster. Carey and Lady Troya take down the final ogre and a masterful polymorph other spell from Shmutzy the Sorcerer transforms Roghan into a slug. However, a FWOOOOSH-kaboom! signals the beginning of the end as the INVISIBLE Zelligar sends a fireball of his own hurtling down the hallway into the melee.

Oh...he didn't teleport after all...was Shmutzy's last thought before perishing, a flaming scarecrow of cooking meat and blackened bone.

Carey charges back up the hallway, dagger poised to strike. Zelligar takes no chances with the indomitable halfling and seals the corridor with a wall of ice. The halfling curses, gouging at the barrier in frustration.

[I should note Zelligar was an 8th level magic-user...he used every spell in his repertoire except wizard lock and sleep. Rogahn I wrote up as a 10th level fighter with 18 strength due in part to his weight training regime (see room XXXVII)...not that it helped against a fourth level spell]

Carey and Troya decided to take out their frustration on something that bleeds: Rogahn the slug. Rather than retreat from the dungeon they continued to hack and hew at the slug (in B/X, a polymorphed individual retains its original hit points). This continued for several rounds...until a troll appeared, again through the same defensive secret doors (directed by Zelligar, of course). Carey decided to engage the huge humanoid...who achieved initiative, grabbed the halfling, and ripped a chunk of skull and brain from his head with a vicious bite (the troll hit the little guy twice, reducing him to -2 hit points). The cleric, deciding to leave the troll to its meal, chose to flee rather than continue the fight.

Later AB and I agree that after the loss of both her ex-fiancee and her husband...as well as all her adventuring companions...the Lady Troya decided to hie herself to a nunnery.

Full post-game analysis to follow.

[by the way...the 2nd half of the Seahawks game just started and the 'Hawks picked off a pass for a TD. Score 21-6 over the 49ers. Hope it holds...Go Seahawks!]

An Embarrassment of Riches

Sorry, folks...meant to write more earlier, but Steve-O came over and wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons. Nay...DEMANDED to play.

Steve is always a bit of a whirlwind, but not in the sense one usually uses the term to describe people. He is much more like the actual natural occurrence...fairly chaotic, full of energy, not necessarily directionless, but certainly without great depth of purpose. Well, other than trying to make friends with everyone and enjoying himself immensely in the company of others. And talking up a storm. Always thinking.

Libras. Sheesh.

Anyway, he and AB and I sat down for a few hours, ran The Keep on the Borderlands, achieved a TPK, made new characters...and then I had to cut them both off. I had dogs that needed walking!

But they'll both be at the Baranof next Thursday.

All right, full reports later...I've got to pay some attention to my wife right now.

: )

Once More Into the Unknown

Two weeks ago, my brother and I sat down at the Baranof to play a little D&D. Since then we have met on subsequent Thursdays, including last night. This appears to have turned into a "regular thing" for us, surprisingly. Surprisingly because there have been so many years since we actually gamed together, surprisingly because how we've both grown and developed over the years...and really surprisingly as I thought he'd totally sworn off table-top gaming altogether.

But whatever...it appears both of us have matured over the years somewhat, though I am still gleeful at getting the opportunity to F with his characters, and he still takes delight in needling me and my wanting to be "more serious" in the game. We seem to have reached a happy medium of gaming.

And the beer helps, of course.

; )

We'll have to see what happens when we have a couple new people join us. Steve-O really wanted to show up last night, but it was his roommate's birthday and they were hanging out in Mountlake Terrace (a far northern suburb). He even asked if there was any chance we could game later this weekend, but my schedule was pretty well booked except for today and he's working a 24-hour shift, so...eh, maybe next week.

Nearly pulled a change-up to Top Secret (1st edition only, please) last night, in fact, seeing as how we'd originally planned for two players and were down to one. However, my brother was late in meeting me last night and I completely forgot this idea as we headed out the door to the bar.

Now those who read my post last Saturday know that AB's newly created character was a magic-user named Shmutzy. And I'm sorry I never got around to posting Part 2, but wine tasting and general relaxation took as much out of me as the driving back-and-forth to Yakima thing. Here are the notes from LAST WEEK's adventure in Castle Q.

- The five party members set out for Castle Q: Shmutzy the Sorcerer, his wife Lady Troya the cleric (6th level), Zaras the Magnificent (7th level MU), Carey the Clever (6th level Halfling), and Grouch Stonehelm (6th level dwarf). Shmutzy was determined to correct prior mapping errors and get some real treasure, his appetite having been whetted by the 1000 or so gold coins found in the owl bears' nest.

- But his FIRST order of business was to collect the dwarf's plate mail armor which had been dumped into a pit/pool of water trap. Recall the party had previously been upended into a pool of water by a false door trap, and that the dwarf had disrobed to save himself from drowning? Well, for whatever reason (possibly because AB forgot about it until they'd reached the caves), they did not bother replacing the plate mail back at town. So AB was determined to fish the armor out of the pool. And anyway, he DID have the spell Water Breathing (recall I made him roll spells randomly? This was one he felt was useful enough to keep).

- Now for those who missed it, remember that I had previously decided all false rumors/legends were now TRUE, and all true rumors/legends were now FALSE. One (previously false) legend in B1 is:

(F) The treasures of Zelligar and Rogahn are safely hidden in a pool of water.

I had already previously decided that the water trap was the pool in which the villains' treasure was hidden...about 70,000 gold pieces worth.

But AB had no knowledge of this.

- I tried (honestly!) to dissuade my brother from searching the damn pool, but he was totally insistent...all because of being penny-pinching (I remember now) about the dwarf's damn armor. So they cast water breathing on the halfling and lowered him into the pool, forcing him to dive in the dark searching for the armor while the party suspended a lantern over the water by means of their rope. And what do ya' know...the halfling starts coming up to the surface with handfuls of coins and jewels.

Oh, man...was it on.

- The adventure quickly changed from a "dungeon exploration" adventure to a "treasure recovery operation." Through a rapid design of ropes and cooperated man-power, they strung up lights, and the bag of holding (looted previously from Meaty's corpse) and put the halfling on "dive duty" bringing up a steady stream of (tiny) handfuls of loot.

All I was left to do was roll for wandering monsters.

- I'm trying to remember exactly the order in which monsters appeared. Overall, there were four wandering monsters encountered before the bag of holding had been filled and the halfling being mercifully hauled up to dry. There was a wandering owl bear "guard," a pair of kobold "servants," and a pair of ogre "guests," before the final encounter (a gelatinous cube sweeping the hallway). One of these first three encounters (the owl bear or the ogres) managed to surprise the party and Shmutzy, being a might jumpy blasted the thing with his wand of fireballs, inadvertently singeing Grouch and completely smoking Zaras due to their placement. After the death of one of their own, the party was more active in setting a guard while the salvage op was in full swing, and the other monsters were dispatched without hitch.

- A word about gelatinous cubes: what the hell? Despite having a guard set, the thing still managed to achieve surprise (they have a higher than average chance of surprise anyway), but how does a thing that fills the entire 10' x 10' corridor sneak up on you? And how exactly does it "attack" anyways?

Well, it DID achieve surprise and it DID successfully attack Grouch. I described this as "suddenly, Grouch gives a gurgle and you see him suddenly suspended in mid-air, apparently caught in some sort of clear, jelly-like substance filling the corridor." Shmutzy hit the thing with three magic missiles and the damage was enough to absolutely destroy the thing, dropping Grouch to the floor.

- After completely filling the bag of holding and realizing there was (literally) tons of treasure still underwater, the party decided it was time to head back town. Rather than burying their treasure or storing it with a local merchant (or trying to exchange it for gem stones or something) they invested in houses, buying a mansion-sized stone building and a normal wood building. Talk about capitalism...AB wanted to make sure the "re-sale" value would be good and was somewhat wary of getting into the "real estate market." I explained that it wasn't 21st century U.S. economy we were talking about here, and he finally pulled the trigger on the purchases...sheesh!

This transaction also led to a party altercation and the near-death of Shmutzy at the hands of Grouch. Grouch was already peeved with Shmutzy for a variety of reasons: hitting him with a fireball and frying Zaras, looting his best friend's body (Meaty) and keeping the best magic items and/or giving items to his wife (the cleric), as well as generally talking down and heckling the dwarf and his Charisma of 3. After buying the houses, he announced that Shmutzy, Troya, and Carey would live in the big stone mansion while Grouch would be relegated to the wood house, "so as not to stink things up when we throw parties and such." Grouch had finally had enough and after rolling a quick Reaction roll and coming up snake-eyes, hit the sorcerer with his axe!

Rather than retaliate, Shmutzy played the Gandhi/pacifist card and fast-talked his way into Grouch letting him live. A few concessions were made and the party was once again a whole (if slightly dysfunctional) family. However, the "curse" of Castle Q seemed like it was still in effect...another False rumor was being proven true with each visit to the dungeon:

(F) The place is protected by the gods themselves, and one member of any party of intruders is doomed to certain death.

Two visits and two party deaths. But AB had no knowledge of this legend (and even if he had, how would he know whether it was true or false?). The rest of the treasure was used to buy a wagon and a pair of draft horses and (after hiring a new magic-user: Selma the Witch) the party was ready to head back to the mountain stronghold for a new session of looting.

That trip would be resolved in last night's session.

No Acrobats Among Thieves

From the American Heritage Dictionary:

Acrobat (noun): 1. One skilled in feats of agility and balance. 2. One adept at quick changes of position.

Acrobatics (pl. noun): 1. The evolutions of an acrobat. 2. The art of an acrobat. 3. Any manifestation of spectacular agility.

Let’s start this discussion with an upfront statement of destination: the B/X Acrobat. No suspense, no mystery, that’s where we’re going with this post…we’re laying groundwork here. If you’re not interested in the destination, no need to read. If you just want the acrobat itself without the underlying reasoning, that’s cool…stay tuned for the follow-up post.

Okay, now to that foundation.

Let’s talk class (should I say, “Let’s muse about class?” A blog ain’t much of a dialogue after all). CLASS. What is a class?

A class is a CLASSIFICATION.

In the case of D&D, it is a classification of adventurer. Not all adventurers are scurrilous rogues, I think we can agree (a paladin or knight errant certainly goes on “adventures,” but hopefully he or she is the epitome of chivalry, grace, and heroic courage)…but a lot of them are. And being “roguish” isn’t of itself a class…that’s simply a descriptive of “adventurer.” You can have courageous adventurers, cunning adventurers, opportunistic adventurers, and yes, stupid and bumbling adventurers. Sometimes combinations of all these things! That’s just personality, or what I’ll call “flavor.”

An adventurer is itself a classification in the D&D world. Humans in the RPG realm are divided into “adventurers” and “non-adventurers.” Adventurers are ambitious, Type A personalities that explore the dangers of the world and learn from their experience, gaining prowess and skill through those experiences…prowess that makes them more alert (better saves), more dangerous (better attack rolls), and harder to kill (more hit points). Non-adventurers do not have adventures by choice (unless it is by choosing to follow an adventuring employer into doom!) and when they do, they do not learn from them (i.e. only adventuring-types gain XP).

All player characters are adventurers. That’s not up for discussion/debate. That’s what D&D is about: adventurers going on adventures. Regardless of how “soft” you are in real life, your character is a seeker of danger, risk, and reward. That’s what the game is about, at every level. If your character has a dominion or kingdom that he (or she) rules, you are STILL getting embroiled in adventures…if you are still playing the game with that character. If not, you’re RETIRED and you’re either starting a new adventurer or going off to play a different game.

Even that seldom pursued time-suck of “magical research” is adventurous. It’s built right into the game rules (characters are supposed to search out rare and dangerous ingredients) and the chance of failure carries its own risk/reward.

All right, have we got that all down? A dude who does nothing but manage his church (or his clan or his hideout/guild) is not an adventurer. For that matter, neither is someone who just tours with a circus or troupe of performers.

Right.

So adventurers are classified in Old School D&D NOT by their flavor or style (that’s just “flavor” and “style”), but by what they do…by the skills and abilities they bring to use on an adventure.

Fighters fight. That’s what they do. They are better at it than anybody else.

Magic-users use magic. That’s what they do. They’re better at it than anybody else.

Clerics care for the party’s spiritual well being…just kidding! No, no…they have an unfortunately less than descriptive class title, but they definitely are their own class: holy warriors, smiters of the undead, miracle-workers, blessed/touched by the gods (or God).

Thieves steal. That’s what they do. It’s why they’re called “thieves.” They are NOT lightly armored swashbucklers. They are not “expert spelunkers.” They pick pockets…because they’re thieves. They open locks…because they’re thieves. They climb walls (to burglarize places)…because they’re thieves. They have the “thief skills” they do BECAUSE they’re thieves.

And thieves are their own classification of adventurer. Their “skills” are what defines how they go about their adventuring profession. They are not great fighters. They are extremely poor at using magic. It’s doubtful they have any truck with the undead if they can help it (recall “Beni” in the 1999 film The Mummy? No matter which holy symbol he pulled out of his shirt, he wasn’t turning ANY walking corpse).

[which reminds me, The Mummy is actually a pretty good example of how D&D can be used in a modern setting, a la Chgowiz’s recent blog posts…Fraser’s character is, of course, a fighter, Beni and Jonathan are both thieves, Evie is a magic-user (1st or 2nd level with the spell Read Magic and perhaps Comprehend Languages), while the Mummy himself is of the Greater Undead variety with a whole suite of clerical powers. Nice!]

I don’t find anything “bad” about including the thieves in the game as a class, and I don’t think they prevent other characters from looking for traps (or attempting to circumvent them)...nor climbing walls, nor hearing noises…at least not in B/X play (Moldvay’s book provides all the rules one would want on this score). Thieves are just SKILLED at these activities. And why would a normal fighter be able to pick a lock anyway? I can’t pick a lock, and I’m a pretty resourceful guy myself!

Okay, everyone got my take on THAT? I don’t hate on thieves in D&D (well, only Halfling thieves)…I think more than a few folks may misunderstand just what the hell they are.

One thing thieves are NOT: they are not acrobats.

Thief-acrobats…man, is any class as maligned around the blog-o-sphere as the thief-acrobat? And why? Because they’re decidedly wimpy compared to the cavalier and barbarian beside whom they appeared in the 1985 Unearthed Arcana? Because they “broke the rules” like the bard (oh, and cavaliers didn’t?)? I will say this about the thief-acrobat…we must have seen nearly double digit thief-acrobats back in my mid-80s AD&D campaign, compared to exactly ONE cavalier (female Drow…barf!) and possibly TWO barbarians (both of which were played by my little brother).

Why the thief-acrobat? I think because people were tired of being skuzzy thieves. I mean, you still get to progress in all the cool “ninja-like” thief abilities (move silently, climb walls, hide in shadows, and backstabbing!) but no longer were you the designated trap guy (oh, I gave that up), or scroll reader (what, don’t we have a magic-user?), or pocket picker (hey, I gave up picking pockets after my FIRST thief was gutted by his own party members).

Personally, I think the thief-acrobat is just as gross and abusive as the cavalier or Unearthed Arcana paladin. It simply allowed people to play TV-style ninja and give up the entire thief shtick. And at no real loss to the party! After all a 6th level (AD&D) magic-user probably has Knock in the old spell repertoire and all (AD&D) clerics get Find Traps as a 2nd level spell…hey, take it with one of your bonus spells for having a higher than average wisdom.

In a way, I have to thank God for Dragon Lance and that f’ing Kender race…if not for styling our Halflings after the kender (much as WotC/D20/Paizo has), we wouldn’t have had ANY normal thieves in our gaming group, ONLY thief-acrobats (as it was we had at least a couple Halfling thief-acrobats…barf! As a DM I’m not ashamed to say that I did my best to kill off these little losers…and while I can’t say for sure, I believe my co-DM did the same!).

So, okay…let’s rein in the ranting a bit. I’m not a huge fan of “hybrid” classes, really. For example, you won’t see a “spell-sword” or “spell-thief” in any upcoming publication of mine (the Elf is the only B/X hybrid I’m prepared to tolerate). Yes, the Witch-Hunter has shades of both clerics and fighters, but their armor is lesser than any fighter, cleric, or AD&D fighter-cleric…and I hardly think their 8 total spells is even close to that of a “half-cleric.” Several of my new class write-ups have “thief skills” but none have more than four of the nine thief skills, and only one (the Mountebank) has the thief’s “backstabbing” ability.

Why am I doing this? To not step on the thief’s toes? To keep things as (B/X) simple as possible? Well, a little perhaps. But MAINLY, I want each class to be ITS OWN CLASS.

There are classifications…real adventuring professions…that are not represented by the OD&D/BX/LL archetypes. I know I’ve said this before. There is no “beastmaster” (a la Tarzan or Sheena). There is no Solomon Kane witch-hunter. There is no swashbuckling musketeer-type whose cunning sword-play is his best defense (no, the thief does NOT count as a “lightly armed fighter;” see above: the thief is a thief!). There is no archer/scout character.

You can say that existing classes can be adapted to the fill some of these roles…for example, a Halfling class seems to have all the special abilities needed for a Subotai-esque (that’s Conan the film, folks) character. But Subotai is no Halfling. And it’s a disservice to Hobbits to cut them just because one is too lazy to make an adequate human class, IMO.

So we come at last within spitting distance of our destination: the acrobat. Specifically, the B/X Acrobat. NOT the “thief-acrobat.” Not some back-stabbing ninja. But a freaking acrobat…"one skilled in feats of agility and balance.” An adventurer who engages in “manifestations of spectacular agility” and “the art of the acrobat.” Not a performer with a permanent circus engagement (any more than an adventuring fighter hires out as a body guard or a magic-user as a court magus), but someone with real skills, skills useful for an adventuring party…and with the ambition and Type A personality required to develop from experience, learning from their risk, reward, and dangerous encounters. An adventurer who is as much a thief as a cleric or magic-user or dwarf (that is to say, a liberator of loot as any adventurer might be, but certainly not a specialist in burglary and robbery).

The acrobat…welcome back!