tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post2475395588015976426..comments2024-03-28T15:54:00.960-07:00Comments on B/X BLACKRAZOR: Supplemental MaterialJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-35993729013033034382020-05-01T10:19:34.023-07:002020-05-01T10:19:34.023-07:00I made elves plant-based lifeforms. In my current...I made elves plant-based lifeforms. In my current campaign, they invaded from the Venus equivalent swamp world way in the past. Their civil war between their colonists and the homeworld got messy, dropping rocks from orbit on each other and smashing their civilization. The colonists on the game world literally went underground for relief and to hide. The local populace revolted and further smashed the elven colonies, leaving a few very outnumbered settlements hidden in the deep forests. Below ground the colonists follow the Eightfold Path and hate surface elves as imperialists. These are my drow. High Elves remember "the good old days" and secretly want to reestablish control over the "lesser races" and maybe reestablish contact with the homeworld. Wood elves are those elves that decided to adapt to the situation, let go of their imperial past, and rebuild with what they've got. The other short-lived races have pretty much forgotten all this during the past millennia, the exception being dwarves who remember they hate elves but have lost exactly why.PatrickWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02083947433803227063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-43189559309470292382020-04-30T19:36:26.942-07:002020-04-30T19:36:26.942-07:00At the moment, I’m thinking of druids as a bit of ...At the moment, I’m thinking of druids as a bit of an endangered species...they were once a major force but there just aren’t all that many left in the world. Still fleshing it out.<br /><br />The more I’ve gone down the road of “orcs as magically created slave race” the more I like it. This is the reason elves speak both orc and gnoll (yep, I’m tying the whole thing to linguistics)...both languages are a bastardized form of elvish used to communicate with the (former) slaves.<br /><br />My elves owe far more to Moorcock’s Melniboneans than to Tolkien’s firstborn, as will be discussed in a future post. <br />; )JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-26921378543363221872020-04-30T18:51:11.748-07:002020-04-30T18:51:11.748-07:00I like what I'm hearing - not sure about orcs ...I like what I'm hearing - not sure about orcs - but I'm just really enamored with my "they're just people with a magical disease that makes them an aggressive hive mind" - like you can have an outbreak of orc-pox and next thing you know "dungburg" has sprouted smokestacks and is churning out raiding parties until someone can convince them that they are better served by relocating to somewhere far away or something.<br /><br />Druids - it's a sticky one, I'd almost be tempted to pull it all the way into the modern World of Warcraft Conception - basically a class of naturalist skinwalkers and shapeshifters who have taken a single spirit of place into themselves (wait now we have warlocks?!) and whose major ability is to shift into a bestial form. So effectively a less competent mage that can go bearserk for 1 turn a level?<br /><br />Gus Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14872819206286105195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-60844729593045842692020-04-30T17:54:55.351-07:002020-04-30T17:54:55.351-07:00Sounds like a plan.
; )Sounds like a plan.<br />; )JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-28105288559303260692020-04-30T09:42:22.809-07:002020-04-30T09:42:22.809-07:00You are correct, what little combat information th...You are correct, what little combat information there is is located in Book 1 of the LBBs. My reorg moved it to the second book. Apologies for the confusion.<br /><br />There is a lot of critical material in the Strategic Review #2 about combat and spell casting. I never realized it until I tried to populate those sections myself. Greyharp's One Book Edition helped me here.<br /><br />I started playing with AD&D 1E and played every edition after that as they came out. I only recently (2019) had a chance to play Original D&D and it draws me to it. It may end up being my favorite edition as it is easy to play and easy to tinker with. I'm grafting a few options from later editions that fit without breaking anything (like advantage and disadvantage from 5E) and keeping a few odd bits from the rules as written (Fire Ball has a 1 Turn duration and Humans may not be Thieves).<br /><br />I'm thinking about moving the treasure section to Book 3 to even out the page count. I named the books Characters, Conflict, and Campaigns, respectively. Book 1, Characters, has everything to create a character. Book 2, Conflict, has the exploration rules, the combat rules, and, the monster listings, and the treasure tables and explanations (which makes it quite plump). Book 3, Campaigns, has all the referee rules on making and stocking dungeons, running campaign advice, and building castles, which is surprisingly compact.<br /><br />Once I get some wordsmithing done on the draft, I'll post downloadable versions on my blog. I'd very much like to see your version as well - seeing how others approach similar issues helps me see other options and learn.<br />PatrickWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02083947433803227063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-43961717060261350282020-04-30T05:08:21.219-07:002020-04-30T05:08:21.219-07:00@ PatW:
To be clear, the combat info is in Book 1...@ PatW:<br /><br />To be clear, the combat info is in Book 1, not Book 2...unless you’re talking about the monster matrices at the beginning of Book 2 (and how they are supposed to be used)?<br /><br />To be fair, I believe the matrix itself says something like “number needed to roll on 20-sided die” (I don’t have my books right in front of me at the moment...it’s the middle of the night and I’m fighting insomnia). Mainly, I deleted most Chainmail references, kept the “alternative combat system” as the only combat system, incorporated Gygax’s clarifications (like initiative rolls) from The Strategic Review, and moved the monster combat chart to Book 3 (along with the experience info).<br /><br />The whole thing could probably do with a textual rewrite, but for now it works just fine as a basic set of rules. I’ll throw a download up on the blog one of these days, but right now I’m having computer issues.JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-77320369214818984872020-04-29T14:27:32.099-07:002020-04-29T14:27:32.099-07:00I'm interested in how you reorg Book 2. It wa...I'm interested in how you reorg Book 2. It was the thorniest for me to assemble, particularly the combat section as the LBB talk very little about combat. I'm not certain there is a sentence that says "Roll a d20 to see if you hit." It just says (paraphrasing) "use the matrices below".PatrickWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02083947433803227063noreply@blogger.com