Sunday, September 23, 2012

TPK


Last night everybody died. First the thief died, and we all felt bad for him because his player was out of town and it seemed so unfair. But thems the breaks. Turned out he was the lucky one: at least he got a decent burial. My character was killed and eaten by a tribe of cannibalistic lizard men. The other two players' characters were captured -- and eaten -- alive. Damn I love this game.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Draft of Some House Rules

Here's a draft of the house rules I'm using for the B/X campaign me and my buddies recently started:


Disarming an Opponent:

Any attacker may attempt to disarm an opponent by stating their intention to do so before initiative is rolled. If the attacker rolls an unmodified 20, the attempt is automatically successful. If the attacker merely scores a hit, the defender may chose between taking the damage or being disarmed.

 

Half-Elves:

Either their elven side is dominant, in which case they're mechanically identical to elves and visually pretty much indistinguishable from other elves (think Elrond); or their human side is dominant, in which case they're mechanically identical to humans and resemble humans unless you look really closely (think Tanis).

Hero’s Luck:
Once per session, each player may use the d30 to reroll any failed d20 roll.

 

Hit Points:

All characters receive maximum hit points at first level.

 

Infravision:
Due to their habit of dwelling underground, dwarves have the ability to see heat signatures in the dark (infravision) up to a distance of 60’. Contrary to popular belief, elves and halflings do not possess any similar ability.

 

Raise Dead:
A character may only be raised from the dead a number of times equal to his or her constitution score.

Rest:
Characters may rest after any combat; those who suffered damage during the combat gain d3 hit points back, though they may not recover more hit points than they lost.

Ritual Spell Casting:
A spell caster may choose to channel the spell energy he has reserved for a memorized spell to cast any unmemorized spell in his or her spell book. Casting a spell in this fashion takes a full turn.

Shields:
A character with a readied shield may choose to ignore the damaged caused by any one attack – though doing so destroys the shield.

 

Swimming in Armor:

Characters must roll their unmodified ac or less on a d10 each round or drown. Strong swimmers may add their strength bonus to the target number.

Fighting with Two Weapons:
Fighting with two one-handed weapons at the same time grants a +1 to hit. 

Unconsciousness & Death:
Characters reduced to zero hit points are rendered unconscious. Characters who take damage in excess of their hit points must save versus death, with success indicating unconsciousness and failure indicating death. 

Yes, I know I haven't posted anything in ages. Me and my wife had a child -- our first -- a girl -- and so I forgot about everything else for a while. Between the joe job and taking care of baby and actually trying to get this game off the ground I don't have much time for the blog anymore but I may update infrequently. Priorities, ya know? 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Styrbiorn the Strong


By far my favorite fantasy novel of all time is The Worm Ouroboros, by E.R. Eddison. (If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you quit whatever you're doing and remedy that stat. I recommend the 1991 Dell trade paperback if you can find it, because it contains a great many useful explanatory notes, even though the cover is to my mind horrific). So of course I was elated to discover that the University of Minnesota Press has recently reissued Styrbiorn the Strong, one of Eddison's earlier novels (written after the Worm but before the Zimiamvian Trilogy), which for many years now has been out of print and extremely difficult to get hold of in any kind of decent, affordable print edition. As an added bonus, this new edition includes for the first time the author's original letter of introduction and closing notes. Do yourself a favor and check it out; you shan't be disappointed.  

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Twisty Little Passages

My earliest exposure to adventure gaming was not actually D&D but the interactive fiction software produced by companies like Infocom in the 80s, which I played on my trusty Atari 800. In particular, it would probably be hard for me to overestimate the influence the Zork games had on my young imagination. So naturally, as soon as I discovered the existence of Twisty Little Passages by Nick Montfort, which purported to be a kind of history of interactive fiction, I had to buy and read it immediately. I was not disappointed.

According to Montfort, the first work of interactive fiction, Adventure, was inspired as much by its author's Dungeons & Dragons campaign as his caving and spelunking activities; and indeed the book contains a lot of material that I think anyone interested in the history of RPGs in general and fantasy adventure gaming in particular would find fascinating. Chapter three even contains a sort of sub-chapter exclusively devoted to Dungeons & Dragons, complete with quotes from Gary Gygax and Dragon magazine. I'm not going to lie: this book is definitely not for everyone; it's a rather dry, academic exploration of a relatively obscure subject. But for the right reader (me), this is gold.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Easy Half-Elves for B/X

Either their elven side is dominant, in which case they're mechanically identical to elves and visually pretty much indistinguishable from other elves (think Elrond); or their human side is dominant, in which case they're mechanically identical to humans and resemble humans unless you look really closely (think Tanis). Why bother? Because I love half-elves and I hate unnecessary rules.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Ingredients

Inspired by this post over at Jeff's Gameblog. I drew inspiration for Shadowbrook Manor from here, here, here, here, here and here - and probably some other places but that's all I can think of right now. If I think of more, I'll do another post. Oh, and the books in the library are "fictional books," with the exception of a few I made up myself and a couple real ones.