Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition

OK, Reading - I've done a LOT of Reading of late (and not just the Historical Research of I've been doing recently either).

I was re-reading my AD&D books last night, looking to planning some new games and I've come to a conclusion - I really REALLY don't think I am ever actually going to "buy into" D&D Next.

Don't get me wrong, for the most part I've really enjoyed what I've seen . . . . .

BUT (there's always a big BUT in these sort of Blog Posts don't you think) I adore AD&D 1st Ed to an almost irrational degree, and as a consequence I am more than happy with the way it plays/runs/feels.

I am actually in love with running AD&D (call me sad if you want, tbh I don't give a crap) - and (naturally) my players are happy when I'm happy (well, happy when they don't screw up during a Dungeon LoL).

So - nope, I'm not going to change ever I don't think. I'll still run Castles & Crusades - its a brilliant game, perfect for newbies and those who prefer a "rules lite" RPG experience. But my Heart will ALWAYS belong to AD&D 1st Edition.

This isn't just borne out of growing suspicions over D&D next (HOWEVER after reading and re-reading it there's actually a lot of 4E "badness" in the document that has (unfortunately) simply been re-tooled and/or re-named, but if you read it again and pay close enough attention to the wording (I.E. the way these rules work) these "things" are still in there (a Bonus of 1,000 XP to those people who've spotted them too).

Dungeon Masters

Somebody on the Facebook "Old School Gamers" Group asked about Dungeon Masters.

Should they be "All Powerful", or merely Story Tellers and Referees.

My response - The Good ones are all three, without your Players realizing the first one even matters . . . . .

Anyone else got any thoughts??

The Legend of the Crystal Skulls - Part II

The land is split, Munkars realm embrace the power of the two Skulls he has - it has lead to a new age of prosperity and progress for the new elite, Munkar and his followers. Munkars "empire" (for want of a better word) is built of the backs of the ignorant and the less fortunate, only those outside of his reach live free in the 'outlands'.

Munkar lives in the vast city of Vivamus, a shining complex of many levels and towers - he and his followers live in great luxury, nearly touching the sky - yet the city streets are shielded by the towers from the daylight, leaving the less fortunate to live their miserable lives in shadow.

To the North, the winterlands - a cold mountainous region, and home to the Tribe of the Free. Barbarians who bow to no man save their High Chieftain, and then only out of love and respect - not out of fear.

This Really Amused Me . . . .

I (personally) believe in 100% openness with my Players, Don Turnbull of TSR UK (great bloke, sadly missed) always found that "odd" about my style of DM'ing - that I didn't fudge rolls etc

When 4th Edition came out, and practically everything is static - with little or no rolling actually done by the player - I was more than a little incensed - as it takes away a good chunk of the fun for the player.

So, this article on 'The Action Point' really REALLY amused me -

http://theactionpoint.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/having-players-roll-the-dice/

So, basically, it seems like its actually more fun to play 4th Edition like the older editions were played - odd that . . . .

Castle Keepers Guide - Some Thoughts

I haven't posted on here for a while, RPG's have taken a back seat for me for a while - not because of lack of interest - but life has been kinda chaotic, and I've been focusing on miniatures and painting for a while (I find it calming).

I've had the Castle Keepers Guide for Castles and Crusades for a while, but haven't really had the time to sit and read it properly. Now I have, here are my thoughts (for what they are worth).

Ok – now everyone who knows me is aware what a huge Castles & Crusades fan I am, next to AD&D 1st Edition it’s my favourite RPG – so what I write here I really don’t do lightly, I'm just being as honest as I always try to be - so before you read on – it’s not all hearts and flowers. Sorry Troll Lords . . . . .
It is a hefty and great looking book – I do wonder however why the cover is matte not glossy like the other books – it looks kinda strange on my bookshelf tbh. A Shame that really.

It’s very VERY much like the original AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide in feel and tone – but rather than simply being a “copy” it’s much more like a show of respect, and a doff of the writers “cap” so to speak.

There is a wonderful section on fleshing out your characters, complete with different methods for attribute generation – height, weight and age charts and tables – and even ideas for using Monster Races as Characters (something very fashionable these days, but also something I am not too keen on.

The section on hirelings and henchmen, whilst interesting and somewhat useful – simply goes on too long for me. Droning on and on seemingly forever, I zoned out while I was reading it. My groups rarely use henchmen, and I personally as a player have never used them – so perhaps it’s just me and mine – but I don’t think the subject deserved the extensive coverage it got.

There is also a BIG section on dealing with world creation and management – great for new DM’s/CK’s – especially those who want to develop their world from scratch – there are even rules for handling large scale conflicts – wars between nations and peoples. Interesting stuff indeed, viable and playable whilst maintaining the “old skool” feel that Castles and Crusades is famous for.

There are even ideas and concepts for story development, which whilst I imagine they were put in there with all the good intentions in the world – they (in my humble opinion) are of little use to DM’s/CK’s – there is too much of this tendency to force DM’s/CK’s into a “mold” trying to make them all run games in the same way – I’ve seen it over and over again for such a long time, I think its kinda bad for creativity and can make individual DM’s/CK’s stagnate – thereby making it necessary that they buy Scenarios and World Books – or maybe that’s the point really (yes I know I am jaded and suspicious).

There are some great guidelines on Challenges and how to rate them properly and effectively, and a large amount of information on the Siege Engine and the mechanics of the system. Assigning appropriate treasure is covered in reasonable depth, as is how to extend and expand upon character abilities. Plus there are loads of good solid examples of how to make judgment calls, assign difficulty levels and such like. Pretty damn useful and a very interesting read.

There are even rules and ideas for Hi-Tech Weapons, so Sci-Fi crossover games and now more easily don (Expedition to the Barrier Peaks for C&C anyone?) – BUT even though Secondary Skills are covered (as in the AD&D 1st Edition rules) there are no real and tangible rules for Skills in C&C – so I am afraid all us DM’s/CK’s and Players who like such things are stuck with our own home-brew systems.

As an experienced DM/CK only around 50% of the Castle Keepers Guide was truly useful to me, newer DM’s/CK’s will find much more of it useful.

Some sections were a little too “in depth” others not so much, and some information that needed to be in there simply wasn’t.

Don’t get me wrong it’s a good solid Tome; I just think it could have been better . . . . . . . . . .

The Dark Creeper

Another conversion to C&C today, one of my all-time favourite Fiend Folio beasties - "The Dark Creeper"!

The Dark Creeper (a folk name  or the race since the race name is unknown and the race language  incomprehensible to linguists) is a humanoid, slightly-built creature about the same height as a dwarf.

Members of the race always dress in sombre, darkcoloured clothing, concealing as much of their pallid skin as possible. They detest light and dwell deep underground - usually leading a solitary existence though there have been rumours of underground villages inhabited by as many as 80 individuals, including 20-25 females. These villages are always ruled by a Dark Stalker.

NO. ENCOUNTERED: 1 (20-80)
SIZE: Small
HD: 2
MOVE: 30 ft
AC: 20 (or 12, see notes below)
ATTACKS: 1 (Dagger) 1D4
SPECIAL: See Notes Below
SAVES: P
INT: Average (Human) Intelligence
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral
TYPE: Humanoid
TREASURE: See Notes Below
XP: 125

The dark creeper is particularly fond of small magical items such as rings and magic daggers -  solitary individuals will carry 25% of their treasure in the copious  pockets of  their cloaks, so  there is a 15% chance of  a magic dagger, 5% chance of a magical ring and 10% chance of 1-4  gems or 1-2 items of jewelery on any individual encountered.  

In a Dark Creeper lair multiply these probable treasure items by the number of male individuals resident, in addition add 1-100 platinum pieces and 50-500 gold pieces. 

A Dark Creeper has all the abilities of a 4^th Level Thief in addition to the ability to Detect Magical Items at a range of 15 feet. A Dark Creeper Attacks with a normal (or, if one is possessed - a magical) Dagger. A Dark Creeper also has the innate power to Create Darkness three times a day - when this power is used, all torches, lanterns and other non-magical sources of illumination within 50 feet are extinguished and cannot be re-ignited during the next hour of in-game time (the duration of the Dark Creeper’s power). During this time the Dark Creeper has two main objectives. First, to destroy lanterns and tinderboxes, break flasks of oil and so on - any act which will inhibit the creation of light and illumination. Secondly, to steal any small magical items detected. Self-preservation ranks only marginally above such objectives. 

 

 Magical sources of illumination may also be affected by a Dark Creeper’s darkness abilities.  In effect, they obtain a saving roll against magical frost, and if the item makes such a save it is not affected. If the item fails to save, however, it is extinguished for the next hour, after which its property returns to normal. 

During the darkness, even infravision becomes useless; however a Dark Creeper will not use its power against parties not using artificial illumination, so Elves using infravision, for instance, will usually pass unmolested. 

Magical sources of illumination may also be affected by a Dark Creeper’s darkness abilities.  In effect, they obtain a saving roll against magical frost, and if the item makes such a save it is not affected. If the item fails to save, however, it is extinguished for the next hour, after which its property returns to normal. 

During the darkness, even infravision becomes useless; however a Dark Creeper will not use its power against parties not using artificial illumination, so Elves using infravision, for instance, will usually pass unmolested.


The darkness power may be countered by spells such as light, and if a Dark Creeper is attacked in normal illumination its AC is lowered to 12. If a Dark Creeper is killed its body undergoes spontaneous combustion of such intensity that all within 10 feet of the victim are blinded (saving against magic permitted) for 1-6 full turns. All traces of the Dark Creeper are destroyed - though metal items will normally (5+ chance on a D20) be undamaged; magical items, metal or otherwise, will lose their enchantment if they fail to make a save against magical fire.

The Necrophidius

Back to some conversions whilst I finish my Cthulhu Mythos notes - first up "The Necrophidius".

The necrophidius, called the "death worm" by some, is an artificial creature, built and animated by a wizard or priest for a single task, such as protecting a particular treasure or assassinating a specific target.

The necrophidius resembles a bleached-white skeleton of a giant snake, topped by a fanged human skull with constantly whirling, milk-white eyes. The death worm's bones are warm to thetouch. The necrophidius is nearly undetectable to most senses. It is absolutely silent; it may open a door and cause the hinges to creak, but it makes no noise whatsoever even when slithering across a floor strewn with leaves. The necrophidius has no odor. The necrophidius keeps up a constant motion, moving with a macabre grace.

NO. ENCOUNTERED: 1
SIZE: Large
HD: 2
MOVE: 30 ft
AC: 18
ATTACKS: 1 (Bite) 1D8
SPECIAL: Eye Magic, Darkvision 60 ft, Anti-Magic
SAVES: M
INT: Average (Human) Intelligence
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
TYPE: Aberration
TREASURE: -
XP: 320

A necrophidius is created for a single purpose. It may be created in one of three ways.

The first is via a magical tome, akin to a manual of golems can provide secrets of the necrophidius's construction (the Necrophidicon, as it is sometimes called, must be burnt to ashes, which provides the animating force for the monster).

Alternatively, a wizard can create a necrophidius by his own means. This process is long and complex, and requires that the wizard be able to cast limited wish, geas, and charm person spells.

The third method enables a high-level priest of some Powers to build a necrophidius. Again, the method is long and tedious. It requires the spells geas, neutralize poison, prayer, silence, and command.

Whichever method is used, the monster requires the complete skeleton of a giant snake (either poisonous or constrictor) slain within 24 hours of the enchantment's commencement. The construction takes 500 gold pieces worth of herbs and ointments per hit point of the necrophidius; and ten days are required. 

A necrophidius is built for a specific purpose (which must be in the spellcaster's mind when he creates it), such as "Kill Ragnar the Bold" or "Keep the Scepter of Trystom safe on this altar."

The necrophidius has a reasonable intelligence, and does not seek to twist the intent of its maker, but its enchantments fade when its task is done or cannot be completed, for example, when it kills Ragnar, or when the owner decides to use the Scepter of Trystom. 

The crafter must want the necrophidius to serve its purpose. He could not, for example, build a death worm to "Sneak into the druids hut and steal his staff," if the crafter really intended for the necrophidius to merely provide a distraction. He could not build more than one death worm and assign each of them to kill Ragnar, since he could not imbue in the second death worm a task that he intended the first one to complete. For this reason, ne-crophidii are almost never seen working as a team. There are rumors, not well-founded, that there were once methods to make a necrophidius that conformed to all current specifications except that it gained 1 Hit Die every century it was pursuing its purpose.

Castles & Crusades Conversions

After chatting to various C&C Fans that I know, the greater majority want to see my series of conversions return.

So over the next few weeks, I shall be doing just that - starting with the C'thulhu Mythos from the original Print of Deities and Demigods.

I will be leaving the Psionic attributes in the stat-line, as those of you who've been following my blog know - I merely transposed the Psionics rules from AD&D 1e over to C&C with no conversion/changes.

First Off - Great C'Thulhu Himself!

Castles & Crusades - Conan Style!

I was asked recently, would it be possible to run a Conan (as in set in Hyboria) style game using the Castles & Crusades rules, rather than the "mish mash" that Mongoose produced.

Although I actually quite like the 2nd Edition of the Conan rules from Mongoose, I really cannot see why not.

The BIGGEST obstacle is the lack of any Healing Magics available to a party, thus rendering all Characters really vulnerable to an untimely end.

In the Conan RPG, they circumvent this with Fate points - but in the SEIGE system I would probably use a "Luck" Attribute in stead, and give it the same 3-18 range (and option to make Primary or not, after all some people are luckier than others) as other C&C Attributes.

Races are another point of contention, as the 3.5 based rules give racial bonuses in the +2/-2 range - whereas in C&C all bonuses are in the +1/-1 range. Its easy enough to correct, dropping +2/-2 to +1/-1 and (should the occur) reducing +1/-1 racial adjustments to zero's across the board. Don't forget there are NO Demi-Humans really running around in the Conan Universe, those "sub-humans" that do exist (like the Black Giants of the Western Seas from Savage Sword of Conan #22) are not really suitable for use as Player Characters.

Classes are (kinda) the easiest to accomodate, so here are some "rough" thoughts.

Barbarians

Quite simply use the C&C Barbarian Class, nice and easy - no changes or messing about needed.

Borderers & Nomads
The quite happily come under the heading of Rangers, they are similar (but not the same) in many respects, I would "tweak" the Ranger class on a character by character basis if variations are required.

Nobles & Knights
I would recommend using the Noble Class from the C&C Freeport Companion. Knights (in the Core Conan Rulebook) come under the heading of "Noble" but luckily in C&C there is a seperate Knight Character Class.

Pirates

Once again the C&C Freeport Companion has a fantastic Pirate Class, alternatively there are a couple of variant Pirate Classes to be found if you trawl the C&C forums.

Scholars

There are no Scholar classes for C&C, I shall be attempting a conversion of the Scholar to C&C at some point.

Soldiers & Sell-Swords

Are Fighters, again you can "tweak" the Fighter class on a case by case basis if you want.

The Temptress

I shall be also doing a conversion of the Temptress class at some point, taking inspiration from the old White Dwarf Magazine "Houri" class as well.

Thief

Take the C&C Rogue class, rename it "Thief" and you're done!

As I have pointed out, Hit Points and Healing could potentially be a problem. In addition to having either Fate Points or a Luck Stat, there are a couple of other things you can do to make things easier.

First Level Hit Point "Kicker".

At First Level, give your PC's Starting Hit Points equal to -

A Dice Roll (or Maximum) + Con Bonus + Constitution Score. It might seem a lot, but there is a rationale to it.

The People of Hyboria are a tough bunch, much tougher than the average FRP "Joe" - plus it increases their "durability" in an environment with limited Healing.

Better Healing Skills.

Rather than 1D3 Hit Points regained during the use of a characters Healing Skill, give them a Higher Dice Roll - or (which I prefer personally) give them 1D3+ the number the task was beaten by.

E.G. If the difficulty was 17 (the number of Hit Points lost in this case) and the character performing the healing rolled a 12 (after modifiers) the person receiving the aid would be healed 1D3+5 Hit Points of Damage. HOWEVER it would take 2 minutes of "tending" per Hit Point healed, and the injured character would then need to rest for a number of minutes equal to the number of Hit Points healed multiplied by 5 (so 6 points of damage healed would require 30 minutes of rest), if the healed character becomes active during that time, he would only receive half the number of Hit Points restored.

Next - The Scholar

4e (not) DnD as a "Tool"

Though I really am still not a Fan, I've actually been using 4e (not) DnD as a "tool" to get people to play Castles & Crusades.

I've been Running "Encounter" Level sessions here and there, and in the (innevitable) post game discussions bringing up Castles and Crusades.

Some (obviously) stuck with 4e (not) DnD, but more than a few have now taken to Castles & Crusades - either as well as their Fantasy RPG of Choice or as their New Main System.

Though I am not a HUGE supporter of 4e (not) DnD, it is a good entry level RPG - very shiney, light on the Roleplaying, and heavy on the Combat Action - but (as is the general concensus amongst D&D Die-Hards) its not long before a lot of Players & DM's (both old and new) want more; and either change their style of play completely (whilst keeping with the 4e (not) DnD ruleset - generally heavily house-ruled) or move to a more enjoyable System. Castles & Crusades & Pathfinder being the most popular "live" D&D-Like Rulesets out there at the moment.

In summing up, Treat 4e (not) DnD as what it is; a good tool to draw people into the hobby - and nothing more.

Back to It

For my Players and thier Characters -

Something Dark is stirring in Guildstown, an evil that corrupts and usurps all that is good and kind.

Lamaria will change, be sure of that.

Long Time No Blog

Long Time no Blog . . . .

Things (my other Blogs notwithstanding) got in the way a little, but my Good friend Chris has done some exemplary work on his Campaign and a LOT more work on the Real Elves I was blogging about some time ago.

Getting back to it, I've been reviewing my C&C conversions - and will be returning to the "Booty and the Beasts" C&C project, doing each page in turn (including the index).

Furthermore, as I am now a C&C Harbinger I will hopefully be running some C&C Demo's in my local area soon as well.

LOADS to do (as usual).