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Is that a dagger in your pocket, or are you Happy to see me?

Dear Knights of the Dinner Table,

I’d always read the stories from your readers, but I never thought they would happen to me….

Sunday we returned to the Old Skool stylings of the Basic D&D game, to finish up the adventure of The Haunted Keep, and things took a fairly grim turn.

The party found another room of bandits, these busy racing cockroaches, and managed to dispatch them, losing Obediah the Elf (Dan’s character) in the process. During the fight, Steve the Magic User (played by Mike) Charmed one of the bandits, and after the fight their new best buddy explained the layout of the half of the keep they were in, and how to bypass Sir Reonald and the room with the stirges by going outside and re-entering through a different exterior door.

The party did so, and easily found the merchant’s daughter they’d been searching for, Lemunda the Lovely. Before they could declare victory and go home, she inquired whether they had rescued her maid, Relda, and two man-servants. The maid was merely in the kitchen opposite, but there things took an ugly turn. When the party showed up, she called for help from Reonald, whereupon Happy Brandybuck the Halfling (suspicious that she was being allowed to cook for the bandits) stabbed her, killing her instantly. This caused Lemunda to start screaming, so they grabbed her and ran, abandoning the missing man-servants. Surprisingly to the GM, Happy didn’t bother to loot the body of the maid, who actually was carrying a gem worth 500 gp that she was planning to use to bribe them to let Reonald escape. They returned Lemunda to the town, where she promptly sought refuge with the town authorities and far away from the homicidal rescue party.

Although the end of the adventure was a bit of a downer, there was much hilarity…partially over how the Bumblers lived up to their reputation, partially over the homicidal hobbit’s pre-murder slip of the tongue (something about raking the maid with his “steely Halfling glaze”) and what this might imply about hobbit culture and culinary habits in this setting.

It was interesting, and somewhat bizarre, running an adventure from a module. Believe it or not it’s something that I haven’t really done before; unlike just about everybody I know who played D&D most of my actual D&D experience was before there was even such a thing as a published Module. The module I was using was a free one, created as a cooperative effort by people in the Dragonsfoot.org forums, and I have to say strikes me as an extremely half-baked effort. At least, I have a hard time believing that the people who created the content of the rooms actually looked at the map they were keying, since Leomunda and her maid are separated from the bandit guards by a series of rooms with only one entrance or exit, including one that the bandits have spiked shut because they’re afraid of the stirges in it, while the rooms that these captives are in have no guards and an exterior door. I decided that the door was locked and couldn’t be opened from either side without a key possessed by Reonald (or by a thief), but that still leaves twenty or so bandits guarding essentially nothing.

I don’t really know whether the group is going to want to continue these Basic D&D forays after the latest fiasco; it still has the advantage that it’s really quick to generate characters and eminently suited to days when the players present and the prepared GMs don’t line up, but I think that I might have to pour a bit more effort into prepping a better dungeon.

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Welcome!

If you can see this you’ve found the new home of Tales of the Rambling Bumblers!

The entries all seem to have imported, and the users are set up; if you want access and can’t remember your password, give me a holler.

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Comment Authentication Back On

Since I’m getting a flood of spam comments, and no legitimate ones (are any of you even reading this any more?) I’ve switched comment authentication back on. If you don’t have a TypeKey id, you’ll have to go register on their site. It’s pseudonymous…you don’t need to enter any personally identifying information to get one; it’s free, it’s usable at a whole bunch of sites besides this one, and it really helps me cut back on the stupid spammers that want to turn this blog into a link farm. Register today!

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That’s A Big Sword You Have There…

myArmoury.com

Neat web page that lets you compare pictures of various styles of swords, to scale (I’m presuming reproductions).

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Dusting off the Borderlands

Last Sunday we discussed what campaigns to run going forward, now that Russell is back in San Diego until next September.

The consensus was that we’d continue with the alternating week campaigns (so that Mike would consistently be in a particular campaign), with Dan running his Warhammer 40K Inquisition campaign (does it have a name?) and me running another…and filling in when there wasn’t a quorum with Basic D&D and one-shots.

For my campaign, while there was some enthusiasm for returning to Neng, the upshot was that we’d give Borderlands another go, although I forgot to mention reviving the Midnight Special Weird West game as a possibility. I know Wendy really liked that setting….

Anyway, in prepping to run Borderlands again I’ve been thinking about switching the system to Savage Worlds.

Savage Worlds is from the designers of Deadlands (which we used for our first Weird West campaign, Clock-Stoppers). It’s a bit like a simplified Deadlands, and a bit like the home-brew system I’ve been using. You can download a “Test Drive”

version of the system here.

Basically it’s a stat or skill vs. target number system, much like what we’ve been using, though instead of rating the tasks at various difficulties it tends to use a single Target Number of 4, applying pluses and minuses to the roll for harder or easier tasks. The advantage over what we’ve been doing that I see with it is it has a simpler way of tracking wounds, treats most npcs as “mooks” who can be taken out by a single wound, and has some nice rules for allowing not-particularly combat-skilled PCs make a significant contribution to combat by taunting or intimidating opponents, distracting them at strategic moments. Even if we don’t adopt the rules wholesale, I plan on stealing that bit.

Even if we do switch over, I plan on keeping the setting-specific rules about accumulating and spending Mojo (the reward for doing cool, cinematic stuff) and the Mundane Tricks (the plot-tricks that non-powered PCs can do to influence the scene without supernatural powers).

I’m going to see if I can get together with Doug and maybe Paul before I really try running Borderlands under Savage Worlds and run through a couple of test combats to see if it’s as fast and smooth in practice as it appears to be in the rules. Anybody who wants to download that pdf and take a look and weigh in with comments is encouraged to do so.

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Comment Away

Since Russell can’t be bothered to set up a free Typekey registration to authenticate to this blog, I’ve once again enabled non-authenticated comments. If I get a flood of spam, though, I’m turning it back off.

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Convalescing is not Awesome

After playing some more D&D with my friend Russell over the weekend (using the introductory dungeon from Basic D&D), what struck us is just how much time 1st level characters spend resting up to go back into the dungeon. The pace is basically: fight a monster, retreat into town to rest a week, go back in and fight another monster, rinse and repeat. When even the strongest party member (the fighter with 9 HP) can be reduced to 1 or 2 HP by a single blow, and the MU can cast 1 spell a day, not resting up completely after each battle is just asking for Total Party Kill. But even if you hand-wave getting out of the dungeon, resting, and coming back to the same room, it’s a real buzz-kill. At least in 3e, the cleric will have one or two Cure Light Wounds spells that will let the party press on, and after the first adventure the party casters can easily create several scrolls (basically a 1st level scroll costs 37.5 gp and 1 xp and takes one day to make).

To address this, I propose the following House Rules:

Binding Wounds
After any combat, you can take time to bind up the wounds of the injured, which involves cleaning them, sewing them up, applying bandages, etc. Binding a character’s wounds will restore up to 1 Hit Die (maximum roll on a die for that class including any con bonuses or penalties), not to exceed the character’s full HP. It requires 1 turn (10 minutes) per HP restored, and a First Aid Kit (cost 1 gp, bandages for 10 uses). If you don’t have a First Aid Kit, a the DM’s discretion you may improvise, but the DM may rule that it’s less effective (fewer than a full HD restored) or risks disease. You may not rebind already bound wounds to get even more HP back if you are down by more than 1 HD worth of Hit Points.
example: Forrest, a 2nd level thief with a +1 Con bonus has 7 HP. During a battle he takes 6 HP, leaving him with one. After the battle he can perform First Aid on himself and heal up 5 HP (4 for Thief HD +1 for Con), so that he’s back up to 6 HP. In a subsequent battle he takes another 2 HP, down to 4. When he binds his wounds after that battle, he can only get back the 2 he just took (putting him back at 6), not a full 5. If the DM finds it too much bookkeeping to track how many hits a character has taken in a battle (qualifying them for a full HD restored by Bind Wounds), he can wave this restriction, but if he finds the players abusing it (e.g. by seeking to take a single point of damage so they can get another HD back), he should rein them in.

If you’re using the optional Skill rules, Binding Wounds is subsumed under the Healing skill; just substitute Max Hit Die for 1d3 points healed (the penalty for a natural 20 still remains 1d3).

Spell Re-Memorization
At any point, a spell-caster (MU, Elf, or Cleric) may spend an hour to memorize (or meditate for) a single First Level spell, even if they’ve already cast all their daily First Level spells. If they haven’t already cast a First Level Spell, then one spell is forgotten to make room for the new one. Because of the complexity of spells higher than First Level, those can only be prepared when the spell-caster is fresh after eight hours of rest.

Justification
Basically, this is just providing an alternate way of accomplishing what first level characters have to do anyway, which is start each encounter fresh. It shouldn’t unbalance higher level characters, since by the time characters reach higher levels they’ll almost always have magical means of recuperating and/or extra spells in the form of wands, scrolls, and potions. In addition, at higher levels a single HD or one more 1st level spell is hardly anything. It also helps a bit with the “oops, I memorized the wrong spell, guess we’ll turtle until tomorrow” problem; it won’t change the course of a battle, and if the characters don’t have anyplace in the dungeon safe to hole up they run the risk of additional random monster encounters, but it should keep the game moving forward.

There’s certainly a possible draw-back that a party might choose to try and rest for an hour after each battle, even if they haven’t taken any damage, just so the spell-caster can get back a spell, but since they still have to deal with random encounters and that’s not so different from what they are tempted to do anyway, I think it won’t be that bad. And I see the spell-caster’s, particularly magic-users, being more ready to cast a spell and more able to take advantage of utility spells as a plus. A low-level MU would be crazy to memorize Analyze or Read Languages as one of his two or three spells for the day, but spell-casters have much more chance to shine (and pull their weight as something other than user-of-mu-only-devices) if you don’t make it a death-sentence to take full advantage of their spell lists.

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What AD&D Character Am I?

I Am A: True Neutral Human Wizard (5th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-10
Dexterity-12
Constitution-11
Intelligence-17
Wisdom-13
Charisma-14

Alignment:
True Neutral A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn’t feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he’s not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard’s strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

I’m pretty puzzled by being True Neutral, actually. I would have expected Lawful Neutral, Neutral Good or even Lawful Good; I suspect the test conflates respect for authority and parents with respect for the law. By the detailed scores, it appears I was pretty close. And I only have one evil bone in my body (I know which question it was, too…. the one about if the elders in your family strongly disapprove of your actions, what do you do. Ignoring them wasn’t an option.)

Continue reading “What AD&D Character Am I?”

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D&D House Rules

I’m going to call the Basic/Expert/etc line “D&D”, distinguishing it from O(riginal)D&D (the white box), and A(dvanced)D&D. D&D is therefor the game we played last Sunday.

Demihumans and character classes

Demihumans can choose to be a different character class, so you are allowed, e.g. Elven Fighters or Halfling Thieves, and are treated exactly as any human of that class (including for level maxima) but:

1) You still must meet all the racial minima to be of that race
2) You get none of the special abilities of your race, which are assumed to come from training that you’re neglecting in order to learn the abilities of your new class, except:
a) Dwarves and Elves retain their infra-vision
c) Halflings retain their Save vs. Death Ray/Poison, and Halfling Thieves retain their racial Hide abilities.

Sharing Spells
The D&D rules forbid Magic Users letting other magic users copy spells from their books, but don’t really explain it except as a cultural prohibition (nobody wants to risk their spell-book); to make this more concrete, copying a spell from a Magic User’s book into another book erases the spell, the same way copying a spell from a scroll uses up the scroll. Magic Users teach their apprentices spells by creating a scroll with the appropriate spell, which the apprentice can then copy into their spell book per the usual rules.

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Labyrinth Lord

Since some of you expressed an interest last week in laying your hands on Basic D&D so you can kick it old skool with your own bad selves, I suggested that you take a look at Labyrinth Lord. While you can get (possibly even legal) PDF scans of Basic D&D from RPGNow, which is where I got what we were using, you’re paying $5 for a not-particularly crisp scan ($10 if you want Expert as well). Labyrinth Lord is essentially Basic & Expert D&D as one book, released under the OGL as a free download. The rules themselves are the same, near as I can tell (with a few fiddly exceptions like rolling 3d8*10 for starting money, and Clerics being able to take spells at Level 1). All the text has been rewritten with an eye towards making it available under the OGL without it being in any way encumbered with any TSR intellectual property that hasn’t been explicitly released by Wizards of the Coast under the OGL. As a practical matter, the rules appear to be interchangeable, with only the organization and some minor terminology changing (e.g. Save vs. Dragon Breath is now Save vs. Breath Attack).

update:By the way, if you do decide you want to buy a pdf from rpgnow, you should probably get the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, which is the same price as either of the other two ($5), but has all the rules that were published for all the boxes: Basic, Expert, Companion, and Masters. What it lacks (the long introductory solo adventure and beginner dungeons), you are unlikely to need.