Dealing with Praise

Over the last several days, I have gotten some very positive feedback on various aspects of this little corner of the internet.

I definitely need to take a moment to thank every one who took the time to take a look at The Slave Pits of Abhoth and was kind enough to comment either here or elsewhere. I have been humbled by some of these reactions — and the people who made them. You have all been very kind indeed. I hope that as folks take a closer look and actually get to use it that my efforts will live up to that initial reaction. I also hope that folks will be kind enough to let me know what doesn’t work.

I also need to take the time to thank Conrad Kinch, who was kind enough to nominate me for a Leibster Award, which is (in essence) a kind of chain letter of appreciation. I don’t normally pass any kind of chain letter along, and if I do what is asked (nominate five other bloggers who have less than 200 followers) eventually every one who does a blog with less than 200 followers will be a recipient.

However, Conrad is one of those lucky few who has the time and resources to play miniature war-games on a regular basis (and focuses on one of my particular favorite periods — the Peninsular War between the British and the French) and hasn’t played D&D since sometime last century. Still, he takes the time to read my scribblings and thinks enough of them that they made his short list of things to call attention to. For that I must thank him and return the favor by pointing out that his scribblings (especially for those who, like me, yearn to be a miniature war gamer) are well worth the effort.

In response to all of this praise (deserved or not), my focus turns to all of the things my various rambles have begun but never finished. Thus, at least in the near future, my production on line will slow a little while I try and figure out ways to actually fulfill some of that unfulfilled promise.

Saintly Saturday: St. Clement of Rome

Today is the feast of St. Clement of Rome. According to the list of bishops given to us by both St. Irenaeus and St. Hegesippus, Clement was the third bishop of Rome. He became a Christian through Sts. Barnabas and Peter. Under the reign of Emperor Trajan, St. Clement was first sentenced to hard labor (where he found and ministered to many Christians) and then drowned by having an anchor tied around his neck about the year A.D. 100.

His legacy includes two Epistles written to the Corinthians. According St. Dionysius of Corinth, these letters were publicly read on Sundays in the church. Intriguingly, this means that these two Epistles were part of the discussion in the early Church as to what should be included in the New Testament canon. In my own experience, I have found that many do not realize that the NT as we know it was not formally recognized until the 4th century. Indeed, the earliest NT writings first appeared more than two decades after the crucifixion of Christ.

This, of course, is soil ripe for folks to claim that certain books were suppressed while others were forced upon Christians and other conspiracy theories about how the NT came to be. The Epistles of St. Clement, however, demonstrate a couple of important factors. First and foremost, the books of the NT were written by Christians for Christians and it was Christians who determined what stayed and what didn’t. Secondly, due to the fact that Clement’s letters did not make the cut despite being accepted as good and right (they were read publicly in church), the criteria for what stayed and what didn’t had two factors:

• They had to contain the Apostolic kerygma — Christ crucified and risen.
• They had to be written by that generation that witnessed Christ.

Clement, being the third bishop of Rome was too far away from the Apostles to make the cut.

His letters, though, are a very interesting read — particularly the first. It is replete with Scriptural quotes, focuses primarily on ethical behavior (something of a trend with early Roman Christians) and integrates Hellenistic thought. The most intriguing example of the latter (and most useful in terms of an FRPG) is the 25th chapter:

Let us consider that wonderful sign [of the resurrection] which takes place in Eastern lands, that is, in Arabia and the countries round about. There is a certain bird which is called a phœnix. This is the only one of its kind, and lives five hundred years. And when the time of its dissolution draws near that it must die, it builds itself a nest of frankincense, and myrrh, and other spices, into which, when the time is fulfilled, it enters and dies. But as the flesh decays a certain kind of worm is produced, which, being nourished by the juices of the dead bird, brings forth feathers. Then, when it has acquired strength, it takes up that nest in which are the bones of its parent, and bearing these it passes from the land of Arabia into Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis. And, in open day, flying in the sight of all men, it places them on the altar of the sun, and having done this, hastens back to its former abode. The priests then inspect the registers of the dates, and find that it has returned exactly as the five hundredth year was completed.

So, Clement gives us inspiration for a fantastic creature (the phoenix), its life cycle (which includes a larval stage) and an adventure — retrieving the bones from the city of Heliopolis. This presents a couple of interesting possibilities:

First, what if a the phoenix were an insect rather than a bird? This would explain the 500 year life cycle (an exaggeration of the 7-year cycle of the cicada), the worm-like larval stage (found in all kinds of insects) and (though Clement does not mention it) even the mythical fire of the phoenix (there are several insects that produce nasty chemical cocktails for self-defense). The “bones” in question could very well be the shedding of the outer shell as the phoenix emerges into its adult state.

Second, the adventure in question could very well be something of a competition or race. The value of the phoenix bones would have to be very high (are they a key component in the spell Raise Dead?). Various factions would hire and equip expeditions into the ancient (and monster infested) city to recover these bones. The party could very well be one of these expeditions. Extra-party rivalry, intrigue and conflict would be all part of the fun. Are there any agreed-to rules as to how these expeditions are to be conducted or is it a free-for-all? If there are rules, what are the penalties for cheating? What is the procedure for proving that someone did or did not cheat?

This, of course, is a beautiful set-up for a campaign. There is a built-in cultural reason that there are adventurers and that there is a megadungeon. There is also the added bonus of a built in time-frame in which a party needs to “level up” enough to be a contender in the adventure of several life-times. On this day one year from now, the competition begins. Will you and your party be ready?

The Slave Pits of Abhoth

I pray that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving Day. I managed to finish a rough draft of The Slave Pits of Abhoth. This means that I have gone through it, spell checked it and edited it myself. Thus, there are still going to be errors throughout. Since I have never had more ambition about this project than to do what I have — produce something that I can share with a community that has been very kind to me and as a way to say, “Thank you” — I have no real intention or means to get this thing more seriously edited. However, I do understand that with the technology we have available today that this could be made available in other formats. As such, I would like to make this post an open thread for folks to comment, point out typos, technical problems, errata, criticisms, etc. If there is a real interest, I certainly can explore further other options.

In the meantime, (based upon feedback), I have decided to try Google Drive as a means for people to take a look at this. There are two links. The first is a normal layout one might expect from a .pdf. The second is saved as spreads so that folks can get a feel for how I originally envisioned this project to look. The first link is here. The second is here.

Enjoy and please let me know what you think. And again, thank you.

Saintly Saturday: St. Gregory the Wonderworker

Today is the feast of St. Gregory of Neocaesaria the Wonderworker. He was a well-educated son of pagans who converted to Christianity. Around A.D. 240, he was elected as bishop of his hometown (modern-day Niksar, Turkey). Rather than go on, I am going to do something that I don’t often get to do — quote a saint about another. In his masterpiece On the Holy Spirit, St. Basil the Great uses St. Gregory as an example of a highly regarded early Christian who used the formula “in the Holy Spirit:”

But where shall I rank the great Gregory, and the words uttered by him? Shall we not place among Apostles and Prophets a man who walked by the same Spirit as they; who never through all his days diverged from the footprints of the saints; who maintained, as long as he lived, the exact principles of evangelical citizenship? I am sure that we shall do the truth a wrong if we refuse to number that soul with the people of God, shining as it did like a beacon in the Church of God; for by the fellow-working of the Spirit the power which he had over demons was tremendous, and so gifted was he with the grace of the word “for obedience to the faith among…the nations,” that, although only seventeen Christians were handed over to him, he brought the whole people alike in town and country through knowledge to God. He too by Christ’s mighty name commanded even rivers to change their course, and caused a lake, which afforded a ground of quarrel to some covetous brethren, to dry up. Moreover his predictions of things to come were such as in no wise to fall short of those of the great prophets. To recount all his wonderful works in detail would be too long a task. By the superabundance of gifts, wrought in him by the Spirit in all power and in signs and in marvels, he was styled a second Moses by the very enemies of the Church. Thus in all that he through grace accomplished, alike by word and deed, a light seemed ever to be shining, token of the heavenly power from the unseen which followed him. To this day he is a great object of admiration to the people of his own neighborhood, and his memory, established in the churches ever fresh and green, is not dulled by length of time. Thus not a practice, not a word, not a mystic rite has been added to the Church besides what he bequeathed to it. Hence truly on account of the antiquity of their institution many of their ceremonies appear to be defective. For his successors in the administration of the Churches could not endure to accept any subsequent discovery in addition to what had had his sanction. Now one of the institutions of Gregory is the very form of the doxology to which objection is now made, preserved by the Church on the authority of his tradition; a statement which may be verified without much trouble by any one who likes to make a short journey.

I would like to point out that St. Gregory’s witness, though powerful enough to the local Christians that they had refused to change anything in their liturgical life for well over a century, their practices were different from other local Churches. Note also that St. Basil had no real issue with this reality (as long as the dogmatic core of what was being taught and worshipped remained consistent).

If you would indulge me, I would make the case that the Church of Neocaesaria is a bit like that segment of our hobby that plays OD&D. I would argue also that there are certain principles found in OD&D that can be found in later iterations of the game that remain consistent despite all the rule changes and development of the hobby, just as St. Basil found himself on the same dogmatic foundation as St. Gregory, despite the differences in form.

When 4th edition came out, there was a lot of discussion about what D&D is, because the form had so radically changed that there was a question as to whether or not the principles that had allowed all of us to say, “I play D&D” (regardless of what ruleset we used) still existed. Although there had already been a move toward older styles due to the soul searching that followed Gygax’s death, I firmly believe that the existence of 4e accelerated the depth and the breadth of this exploration.

The fourth century in Christian history had a very similar pattern. There were a number of theologians deeply influenced by philosophy that started doing and saying things that were far enough away from what had come before, that the Church had to ask the question “What is Christianity?” Their answer is recorded in the dogmatic statements of the Ecumenical Councils.

What is fascinating about this history, however, is that those very same councils would use words and forms that were never used by Christians before them in order to defend what had come before. In other words, they borrowed things from their contemporary milieu, re-applied what had come before into this new-milieu, and came out stronger.

It is here that I need to quote Robert Conley:

To me the Old School Renaissance is not about playing a particular set of rules in a particular way, the dungeon crawl. It is about going back to the roots of our hobby and seeing what we could do differently. What avenues were not explored because of the commercial and personal interests of the game designers of the time.

We live in a new milieu. It is no longer the 1970s. Our cultural and technological landscape is radically different. What Robert is suggesting is that we take the principles of our hobby as they existed in the 1970s and re-apply them to our current reality. What we might end up with may very well look different from OD&D, but our hobby today is going through a golden age because of this process of re-applying what we learned from the hobby as it was in the 1970s.

For example, player freedom, agency and creativity are core principles that I insist upon. In my own experience, the best way that these get expressed is within the context of an abstract combat system. My recent musings on some of the shortcomings of this abstraction, however, resulted in a few folks reminiscing about how glad they are that they no longer play that way. Indeed, Robert himself prefers a far more concrete form of combat simulation (but acknowledges that the trade-off is far more time spent in actual simulation).

This is a pattern found in the 1970s, when several folks moved away from the D&D abstraction towards a more realistic model — because that realism was a core principle that they found important enough that they changed the way they played the game.

The beauty of our current situation is that we have all of the history to go back to and see how it was done before and what resulted from certain choices in game-style and rule-set. We, because of our milieu, now have the freedom to go back and tweak these choices and explore how other choices impact the way the hobby is done. And we are stronger for it.

Speaking of Archers...

I have been ill this week, therefore I have done a lot more TV watching than I normally do. Fortunately, in these days of streaming video, it means I can be a lot more selective about what I watch. One of the more surprising discoveries I have made this week is CW’s Arrow.

Back when I did read comic books on a regular basis, Green Arrow was one of my all-time favorite heroes and definitely my favorite second-tier hero (I even liked Green Arrow II, Conner Hawke). The image that cements Green Arrow in my mind as one of the coolest ever, though, is this:

The sheer tenacity of the aged, one-armed Oliver Queen taking on Superman (and winning) in Frank Miller’s Dark Knight warms my heart. One of the reasons I tend to be a DC guy is that they play with the archetypal struggle of humanity vs. the superhuman. This is exemplified not only by the image above, but by the fact that Batman has a piece of green kryptonite in the Bat Cave just in case.

It is fine when the god-like superheroes of the DC universe serve humanity, but the moment they turn on humanity (either out of selfishness or allegiance to a different cause), guys like Batman and Green Arrow are ready and willing to take them on in defense of us regular joes. I love that.

From my own Christian POV, Batman and Green Arrow are akin to prophets — they are ever-vigilant against idol-worship (which is what superheroes would be doing if they stopped serving humanity — they'd worship themselves and their power rather than the God who created them) and they remind us of the fallenness of the world in which we live.

This all brings me back to CW’s Arrow, which is a TV adaptation of DCs Green Arrow, and it is a surprisingly good one. Not having paid much attention to comics in well over a decade, I don’t know how well the series meshes with current canon, but I really don’t much care. It is a refreshing re-telling of the Green Arrow story that gives enough nods to the mythos that I am very much satisfied with the effort thus far.

One of things that I am finding very intriguing is the honesty with which it deals with the consequences of being a vigilante. Unlike the classic Batman, this version of Oliver Queen has no qualms about killing people. Although he has done the calculations and figured that it is worth the price, there is definitely a toll that is being paid for all this darkness. While I completely understand why he has made the choices he has, I don’t agree with his choices. And yet, I care enough about him that I continue to watch.

Indeed, for my buck, this is one of the best TV adaptations of any comic book superhero I have ever seen. So, if you haven’t already, check it out.

Holmes on Abstract Melee vs. Concrete Missile Combat

It is an old school trope that combat is abstract and that each “to hit” roll is actually a “to damage” roll representing several attempted strikes over the course of a one minute combat round. This understanding of combat, however, breaks down with the introduction of missile fire, where the use of ammunition necessitates the understanding that each die roll represents a single shot. Thus, the game has moved toward applying the same understanding to melee. One of the first to do this was Dr. Holmes:

In a melee the attacker strikes a blow or "takes a swing."
...
Melee is the most exciting part of the game, but it must be imagined as if it were occuring in slow motion so that the effect of each blow can be worked out.

Recently there have been a couple of attempts (Brenden at Untimately and Talysman at 9 and 30 Kingdoms) at reversing this trend by abstracting missile combat. As much as I like both of these (especially Brenden’s), they both break down once thrown weapons enter the picture (as Brenden himself acknowledges).

This suggests that missile combat was never meant to be abstracted, but rather a separate subsystem of combat. I say this because of the aforementioned Dr. Holmes. Despite his contribution to the modern conception of D&D combat, if one understands his work to be an edit of OD&D, he can shed light on a way for old-schoolers to have their cake and eat it too:

Once the party is engaged in melee, arrows can not be fired into the fight because of the probability of hitting friendly characters.

If one follows Holmes on this score, than melee combat is clearly differentiated from missile combat — they happen in different phases of the game and can therefore be handled differently. Melee can be abstract while missile combat represents individual shots.

The key to this is a proper understanding of movement, because there is a danger of completely eliminating missile combat from most encounters if opposing sides can close into melee before any shots are made. Here is movement according to OD&D:

Movement … is in segments of approximately ten minutes. Thus it takes ten minutes to move about two moves — 120 feet for a fully armored character. Two moves constitute a turn, except in flight/pursuit situations where the moves/turn will be doubled.
...
Melee is fast and furious. There are ten rounds of combat per turn.

Encounter distance in a dungeon is from 20-80 feet. Therefore, it would be possible for the side who wins initiative to close into melee and prevent missile fire altogether; however, take a look at how Holmes handles movement:

There are ten "rounds" of combat per turn. Each round is ten seconds, so a combat turn is shorter than a regular turn, but results in at least as much muscular fatigue. Movement (if any) is usually at a sprint; an unarmored man can move 20 feet per melee round, a fully armored man only 10 feet.

Note that if one ignores the fact that Holmes has shortened the combat round from one minute to 10 seconds, his combat movement is approximately 1/10 that of normal movement (for a more detailed examination of movement in Holmes, see my post here). In other words, rather than having a full move every round, a character or monster still has a full move over the course of a turn.

The upside of this understanding of movement is that in a typical encounter, the process of closing into melee (and thus ending the missile portion of combat) will usually take a number of rounds. Thus, the process of getting into melee is full of interesting tactical choices.

For those of you who have grown up with the notion that their character can fire into a melee, the subsystems are actually not as incompatible as one might expect. As Holmes suggests, firing into melee is fraught with danger — there is a very real possibility of friendly fire (my take on how to do this with Holmes is here and here). Thus, rather than letting loose as many arrows as possible into the fight, an archer would most likely be waiting until there is a safe opening through which to fire. Thus, in the abstraction of melee combat, someone who is firing into that melee is going to only have one clear shot every minute or so — which translates into one missile per round.

Saintly Saturday: The Martyrdom of St. George

Today is an intriguing local commemoration within the Georgian Orthodox Church — the Martyrdom of St. George the Great Martyr and Trophy-Bearer. The country of Georgia has a very special relationship with St. George, who is normally celebrated on the day of his death: April 23. This relationship begins with St. Nino Equal-to-the-Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia (a woman, by the way). She was a relative of St. George and was intimately familiar with his story.

She set aside today as a special commemoration of St. George, remembering his torture on the wheel. Historically, a victim of the wheel was tied across the spokes and a hammer was used on the limbs of the victim in-between the spokes. This made it easier to break bones. Victims would be left exposed and would die of dehydration, shock or a combination of the two.

Through St. Nino, St. George became a patron saint for the whole nation. A patron saint is a saint with whom a nation, organization, family or individual has a special relationship in which the saint is seen as a special protector and whom prayer is especially dedicated to. As a result of Georigia’s relationship with St. George there are churches and chapels dedicated to him all over the country (especially in villages). Almost every day of the year, there is some sort of dedication to St. George related to the building of a church or chapel, or a miraculous icon.

It is this ubiquity that intrigues me, and is something that can be easily incorporated into an FRPG campaign. Rather than overwhelm players with a plethora of saints, have one saint (or possibly a few) that play the role of patron for an entire region. This could manifest itself through play in a number of ways:

• Simple greetings can be based upon the saint — “Through the prayers of St. George;” “May St. George walk with you.”
• Local festivals can be based upon events in the life of the saint (for some ideas, you can check out this post).
• Items from the saint’s life could have special meaning and thus require extra effort. For example, in a fantasy version of Georgia, it might be seen as anathema to use any wheel without first getting it blessed by the local priest.
• These same items could also become symbols of local guilds, organizations or individuals.

In other words, with very little effort, an entire region of a campaign world can come alive and have a depth of character simply by telling the story of a saint.

For example, in my pre-blogging days, one of my Gamer ADD projects was a pseudo-Christian campaign world to take advantage of several Goodman Games modules I own. The small region that was to be the focus of the campaign had been invaded by an evil army and the local rulers (four of them) were asked to surrender. Part of this meant denouncing Christ. They refused and where turned to stone. Miracles started happening in the vicinity and allowed the locals to push the invaders out of their little valley.

Colloquially they are called The Four Saints or simply The Four. They still stand petrified where they were originally turned to stone (though they have been known to change over time). One of the ways this patronage plays out in the local culture is that it is considered bad luck to sell anything in anything other than a factor of four. Thus, livestock is sold by the hoof rather that the head.

This sort of thing doesn’t have a major impact on the mechanics of the game, but it does give the players a chance to immerse themselves into a campaign world with something simple and relatable.

I am Somewhat Impressed

WotC continues to surprise. It looks as if they are planning to re-release the A-Series in hardcover form next summer along with a new introductory adventure. It seems that the sentiments that exist around these here parts are beginning to take hold. I hope this is a trend that continues...

Saintly Saturday: The Martyrs Arkepsimas, Joseph and Aethalas of Persia

Today, I would normally be inclined to wax poetic about St. Raphael of Brooklyn (since he is a recent and American Saint); however, since he is celebrated on the first Saturday of November, I did so last year. Having re-read that post in preparation for this one, I would add to it my own recent musings about WH40K and the ability to include the wandering Christian in any RPG setting.

Rather, I will write about another feast celebrated today: the Martyrs Arkepsimas, Joseph and Aethalas of Persia. During the 4th century, Christianity was flowering within the Persian Empire. The Church was building churches and appointing clergy even in the royal cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon (both in modern day Iraq). Both the Magi of the native Zoroastrianism and the local Jews grew envious of this success. Therefore, they accused the bishop of these cities (St. Symeon) of espionage. This charge stuck because Christianity had become the state religion of Persia's great rival — the Roman Empire. Thus began a great persecution of Christians within the Persian Empire under Sapor II.

Sts. Arkepsimas, Joseph and Aethalas were all arrested during this time. Arkepsimas was Bishop of Naesson, Joseph was a presbyter and Aethalas was a deacon. They were taken to Arbela where they were put on trial by the Zoroastrian Magi Ardarkh. When they refused to denounce Christ, they were thrown in prison where they suffered for three years. At this point, the emperor himself came to worship at the temple in Arbela and demanded to see the three prisoners. When the three confessed their faith in Christ, Arkepsimas was beheaded and Joseph and Aethalas were stoned.

Interestingly, guards were set up so as to prevent the recovery of the bodies. Christians managed to recover Dn. Aethalas and secretly buried his body. At his grave, a tree began to grow bearing fruit with healing properties.

For me, the beginning of this story puts an interesting twist on the classic fantasy trope of Temple Street. Imagine, for a moment, rather than the classic RPG and S&S pseudo-pagan temples (such as those from the Greyhawk pantheon like Pholtus, Celestian, Fharlanghn, Boccob, etc),  a street with a Zoroastrian Temple, a Jewish Synagogue and a Christian Church. For me, this is a much more intriguing set-up than the normal trope.

In addition, this story suggests a spin on the traditional Rescue-the-Princess adventure trope. Imagine, for a moment, an urban campaign where one of the party’s primary functions is the recovery of bodies. This need not even be in an overtly Christian context. One could justify a whole campaign based on the idea that there are necromantic forces that have power over the bodies of those that are not properly buried. Thus, the recovery of a body means one less undead the city guard have to deal with.

Finally, here’s another twist, this time with the fantasy trope of the Elven Tree:

The Deacon’s Tree

This very rare and highly valued tree only grows upon the grave of a martyred deacon. It remains green regardless of the season and its branches bear a variety of magical fruit. These fruits, when eaten, bestow upon the recipient a type of healing spell, depending on the color of the fruit. On any given day, a Deacon’s Tree will have the following fruit:

1d4-1 Red (Cure Light Wounds)
1d6-4 Orange (Cure Disease)
1d8-7 Yellow (Remove Curse)
1d10-9 Green (Cure Serious Wounds)
1d12-11 Purple (Neutralize Poison)
1d20-19 Blue (Cure Critical Wounds)

In addition, each fruit will have 1d4-1 seeds. These can be used to plant a new Deacon’s Tree or (more commonly) as a one-use +1 bonus to any die roll (after which the seed is destroyed).

The Slave Pits of Abhoth

Earlier this week, I posted an update on my version of the Slave Pits of the Undercity. The main purpose of that post (besides putting pressure on myself to finish the project), was to ask the question of those who know better than I: what is the best, easiest and safest way to get people the .pdf who want it?

Unfortunately, the post has not garnered a lot of hits and the only comment thus far was some (much appreciated) encouragement. One of the big hurdles that I managed to get over this week (and one of the reasons that there is a light at the end of this tunnel) is the cover art. I wanted to do it myself and to do something that not only gave a loving homage to the original Slave Pits, but also to demonstrate that this not the Slave Pits of the Undercity. I am going to share in hopes that this gets a bit more traffic and possibly an answer to my question:

Enjoy.

I am either an Optimist, a Fool or Both

One of the most influential moments of my life was sitting next to my dad in a theater (that is now a parking lot) watching Star Wars for the very first time. When Lucas re-released Star Wars, I had a very intense flash back, and almost asked my friend sitting next to me, "Dad, is that guy dead?" after the first rebel was shot down by a storm trooper in the first minutes of the film just as I did the first time I saw the movie.

As a result, I am a "Han shot first!" kinda guy; however, I have never been a partisan. I acknowledge that Star Wars was George Lucas's creation and that he has the right to do whatever he wants to with it.  However, no matter how much George Lucas mucks with it, he can never take away that moment of magic when I sat next to my dad and watched Star Wars for the first time.

Thus, I am not as shocked or disgusted as some are at the news that Lucas has sold Lucasfilm to Disney and that they plan on making a new movie. Rather (once again) I acknowledge that Lucas can do whatever he pleases with his creation and am even a tad bit hopeful.

Before anyone calls me a fool, let me put this into context. The vast majority of fans agree that the prequels were, if not horrible, then disappointing. Further, I would argue that many of us think that Empire is the best movie of the bunch.

It is here that I would draw a parallel to the trajectory of Lucas and Star Wars with TSR and D&D. OD&D/Holmes are akin to the original Star Wars. Moldvay's Basic Edition is akin to Empire. The originals are awesome, but their sequels improve on that awesomeness. However, everything that follows is increasingly disappointing.

Yes, I enjoyed both Return of the Jedi and AD&D, but they weren't as good as what came before (I know AD&D came out at about the same time or, in the case of the MMI, before Moldvay, but the analogy still works in the trajectory of Basic comes before Advanced).

By the time TSR went under, the product being produced was a far cry from the original and, in a lot of cases, not worth the paper it was printed on — similar to how many of us feel about the Star Wars prequels. When TSR went under, WotC bought the rights to D&D, produced the OGL and ushered in the beginnings of the golden age that we are currently living in.

This is why I am a bit hopeful for the Star Wars brand. It took another company with a brand-new perspective to re-invigorate D&D. The same might very well be true of Star Wars. By the time the prequels came out, Lucas was too powerful for anyone to say no, and the story got lost in all the new toys that he had at his disposal, in the same way TSR was more interested in putting out product than in actually playing the game.

Maybe, just maybe, Disney will do for Star Wars what WotC did for D&D. Now I will grant that the best thing WotC did was to give the game to us via the OGL and Disney is not likely to follow suit with Star Wars so there is plenty of room for this whole endeavor to go disasterously wrong; however, I choose to hope.

Slave Pits: An Update

Back in July, I was experimenting with a layout design for trying to write up my version of the Slave Pits of the Undercity. My own personal goal at the time was to have something ready for the re-release of the AD&D core books by WotC. Unfortunately, life interfered in a major way, and my own internal deadline came and went. Thus, a lot of the motivation for working on the project faded, and I have only half-heartedly worked on it since.

As I noted in the posts about the layout experiment, I don’t really enjoy writing modules — I like making maps and notes, playing and improvising. So, despite the fact that I really like the work I have done, it is work. Recently, however, I have been grinding away at the project, because this is something that someone else requested and I promised myself I would finish.

Thus, the number of posts I have written has fallen because I have made a hard charge to get this thing done. There are still several things to do before I get a finished rough draft, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

One of the things that I was interested in at the outset was how efficient this layout was going to be. It looks like this might come in around 70-73 pages, which includes the background information; encounter areas for the island, the village, the castle and the temple; three dungeon areas with a total of 140+ rooms; a new monster and new magic section; and all of the maps. For a comparison, Patrick Wetmore’s Anomalous Subsurface Environment which includes a campaign setting and a dungeon with 101 rooms comes in at 87 pages.

And here comes the crux of this post. I want to ask a question of the folks out there that have more experience at this than I: For the purpose of letting people get a hold of the .pdf of this project what are the easiest, safest and best ways to grant this access?

Saintly Saturday: St. Nestor the Martyr

Today is the feast of St. Nestor the Martyr, which is really an extension of yesterday’s feast — St. Demetrius the Great Martyr of Thessaloniki. During the reign of Maximian and Galerius, Maximian appointed St. Demetrius as proconsul of Thessaloniki, ignorant of the fact that Demetrius had been raised Christian. Part of the saint’s duties was to “Put to death anyone who calls on the name of Christ.” This wording gave the saint enough room to proclaim and teach Christ, without having anyone “call on the name of Christ.”

When Maximian learned that he had not only appointed a Christian proconsul, but that St. Demetrius was converting Roman citizens to Christianity, he immediately marched on Thessaloniki and sent his soldiers to find and arrest the saint. In the meantime, Maximian amused himself with gladiatorial games, especially those involving his champion Lyaeos, a gifted wrestler of great renown.

It is at this point that today’s saint comes into the story. St. Nestor was a disciple of St. Demetrius. Angered at the arrogance of Lyaeos, who openly mocked Christians and blasphemed Christ, St. Nestor went to St. Demetrius (who by this time was imprisoned) to ask his blessing to enter the arena and fight the emperor’s champion. With the saint’s blessing, St. Nestor entered the arena bolding crying out, “O God of Demetrius, help me!” He then landed a punch of such power to the chest of Lyeaos, that the champion’s heart exploded.

St. Nestor was arrested and soldiers were sent to kill St. Demetrius (yesterday). St. Nestor was killed with his own sword (today). As an aside, this story was not widely known outside of Thessaloniki until around the seventh century when the relics of St. Demetrius started to exude myrrh (the oil-based burial spice that the women were carrying to anoint the body of Jesus when they found the empty tomb). The relics have been doing this ever since. I’ve been to Thessaloniki myself, and even with the relics encased in plexiglass, you can smell the sweetness of the myrrh.

It is here that I have to confess that one of my favorite parts of this hobby (both as a player and a DM/GM/LL/Ref) is the henchman. I mention this, because when seen through the lens of D&D, what is St. Nestor if not a loyal henchman?

I realize that there are parts of this corner of the internet that look down upon the lowly henchmen as bothersome, useless, worthy of abuse and as an XP sponge. I would counter that they are full of potential, and when handled correctly by both player and DM/GM/LL/Ref, they can be the source of great stories — like that of St. Nestor.

For example, my Lost Colonies campaign is literally littered with former henchman. Headwaters has a cheese factory (specializing in halfling-made camel cheese), a successful tavern owned by a one-legged thief, where the concierge is a goblin-turned-half-elf magic-user and the cook is a gourmet frogman. On the road to Trisagia is a fortified bridge guarded by a half-giant. Even the recently built cathedral in the Elflands is tended to by a cleric whose beginnings were as a henchman of the current party.

Speaking of the party, take a look at how many of them were either once henchmen within the party that have been promoted due to PC death or retirement or are justified as potential former henchmen of retired PCs:

• Coleman the Torchbearer is now a 6th level fighter.
• Grak the one-armed cave boy is now a 6th level monk.
• Gillek the gnome is now a 6th level fighter.
• Eldric the elf is now a 4th level cleric.

What makes all of these characters great PCs is the back-story each brings to the game due to the fact that everybody knows the 0-level place where they came from. Indeed, one of my favorite campaign ideas is to start off as a 0-level NPC and earn first level through adventure when no other adventurers are available. This idea has been around for years. Goodman Games used it back in the 3ed era with their modules Legends are Made, not Born and Halls of the Minotaur and has hardwired it into Dungeon Crawl Classics. I have been sorely tempted by all of these on more than one occasion.

Indeed, my own personal history with this hobby has been primarily spent playing lower level characters. I love seeing a PC take shape based upon what they manage to survive and how they manage to do it. Adding a good henchman into the mix just makes that journey even more special, because I get to see them develop as well.

WH40K Campaign: Space Port Map

One of the entrances into B.R.7 is the space port. This is one area in which geomorphs are not going to be very helpful, so I decided to create a generic sci-fi space terminal that can be attached to any kind of hive city, space station or other variation of sci-fi goodness. I'd like to give a shout out to Paratime Design whose sci-fi maps have not only been used in my own campaigns, but inspired this:

Enjoy.

Saintly Saturday: St. Artemius of Antioch

Today is the feast of St. Artemius of Antioch. During the reigns of St. Constantine the Great and his son Constantius, Artemius was a prominent military leader. When Constantius was emperor, Artemus was sent to Patras to retrieve the relics of the Apostle Andrew and to Thebes of Boetia to retrieve the relics of St. Luke. In return for these services, he was made viceroy of Egypt, where he spread and strengthened the faith.

Constantius was succeeded by Julian the Apostate (a regular character in these Saintly Saturday posts). The new emperor had rejected Christianity and wanted to restore paganism to the Empire. In his zeal, he had two bishops of Antioch tortured and killed for refusing to forsake Christ. While this persecution was taking place, Artemius arrived in Antioch and publicly denounced the emperor. This, of course, enraged the emperor and Artemius was subjected to heinous tortures and thrown into prison. Eventually, once Julian realized he was not going to change the saint's resolute mind, he had Artemius beheaded.

If seen through the lens of a D&D character career, the story of St. Artemius primarily takes place in the mid- and high levels. His quest to retrieve the relics of Sts. Andrew and Luke are akin to wilderness adventures. He had to cross the Aegean Sea in order to get to Thebes of Boetia (which is in Greece, not Egypt) and then trek across to the other side of Greece in order to get to Patras (and might even have had to cross the Gulf of Corinth). Having returned with these prizes to the emperor, his appointment as viceroy is the equivalent of building a stronghold. His conflict with Julian, then, is akin to the end game, where high level characters are dealing with larger political issues.

Though I do not spend any time on the boards, nor have I paid much attention to the play tests of Dwimmermount, I have caught wind of a level of disappointment with both the format of Mr. Maliszewski’s project and the dungeoncrawl in general.

I have to admit that I really don’t understand either of these sentiments. Dwimmermount was explicitly an experiment in doing a megadungeon cleaving as close to the rules of OD&D as possible. Due to the nature of that ruleset, this naturally requires far more creativity from the Referee and a much larger emphasis on exploration. Personally, these are exactly the two things I love about the game. As a player, some of the best sessions I have ever had involved nothing but exploring ancient ruins with nary a hint of combat. As a Ref, I love dropping hints of the backstory of why there is a megadungeon in the first place and seeing the light go on as these hints get pieced together into a greater understanding.

Of course, I have found that a successful campaign (in which I include Maliszewski’s original Dwimmermount) includes a wilderness exploration component, as looking at the life of St. Artemius through D&D glasses suggests. From personal experience, however, the key to making the megadungeon work (as opposed to a series of location-based adventures scattered across a wilderness) is to tie that wilderness exploration to the backstory of the megadungeon.

I’ll give two good examples. When Maliszewski ran Mr. Raggi’s excellent Death Frost Doom, he tied it to Dwimmermount by having the history Cyrus Maximus intertwine with the history of Dwimmermount. It added to the mystery and story of Dwimmermount. In my own Lost Colonies campaign, my players have ended up both on a spaceship and on an alien planet. The first had the Two Swords, which Dn. Goram was sent to retrieve and return to my megadungeon and the latter had a gate that led to the bowels of my megadungeon. Each of these adventures added to the mystery and backstory of my megadungeon.

In other words, the megadungeon (when used creatively) can be the backbone of every aspect of the typical D&D character's career — the initial dungeon delve, the wilderness exploration and the end game. Having personally seen this happen, it not only can make a campaign sing, but something that you want to go back to over and over again.

WH40K Campaign: Space Orks

One of the most prevalent group of creatures that inhabit B.R.7 are the orks left over from the failed invasion of Black Reach. Thus, I need to convert several of the ideas about WH40K orks into stats I can use at the table.

There are three things I have to note about the way I am going about this conversion:

1. There are going to be discrepancies between my interpretation of certain types of oddboyz and WH40K canon for the purpose of having a working set of statistics.
2. For the moment, I have no conversion for Madboyz. I have three possible ways to go: 1) Use the psionic rules of Stars Without Number and determine the number of disciplines and powers by the number of orks in the area 2) Use various Mental Mutations from Mutant Future placed in a table to determine which is available on a particular round and modified by the number of orks in the area 3) Use various psionic powers from Realms of Crawling Chaos, again using a random table modified by the number of orks in the area. The first is most likely to be the most effective, whereas the latter two are a bit more fun (with MF being more gonzo than RCC). I just haven’t made up my mind yet.
3. I am going to use a modified S&W stat block. There are a couple of reasons for this. First and foremost, I have come to find that it is the easiest to both prepare and use and the table. It has just about everything I need to know about the monster. On most occasions, I would quibble with myself over this statement because normally I insist on things like % in lair and Hoard Class/Teasure Type. These two stats, however, are not going to be necessary. There is not going to be a whole lot of wilderness exploration where orks are involved and traditional D&D/LL treasure is not going to be a major part of the campaign. HD = Hit Dice; AC = Armor Class; Att = Attack & Damage; ST = Saving Throw; Sp = Special Abilities; MV = Movement; Al = Alignment; Mor = Morale

Space Orks

No one can control the wind and stop it from blowing, no one can control the day of death. From war there is no escape, no more can wickedness save the person who commits it. — Ecclesiastes 8:8

Space Orks are a genetically engineered race whose sole purpose is war. Who engineered them and for what purpose is lost to the mists of time. Presently, they are a plague upon imperial space. Mostly, they fight amongst themselves; however, warbosses of great prowess and power are able to organize large groups of orks into what is known as a WAAAGH! that conquer entire worlds, spreading destruction and chaos as they go.

One of the more interesting aspects of space orks is that their technology does not function for any other race. Indeed, their technological prowess is genetically engineered into them — they have no real knowledge of how or why it works. Rather, their is a latent psionic power that exists within groups of orks that through their belief that the technology will work, it does. Outside of this psychic field, it doesn’t.

One of the side-effects of this reality (besides the inability of adventuring parties of looting space orks for their technology) is that in within the remnant ork warbands inside of B.R.7, this psychic belief is waning and the technology starts to malfunction. A minimum of five space orks are required for their tech to work without a glitch. For every ork less than five, there is a 25% chance that their tech will malfunction when it is used. Thus, if there is only one ork, all the the tech ceases to function at all.

Space Orks

HD 2
AC 6
Att 1d8 (pistol) or 1d8 (sword/axe)
ST 16
Sp Burst Fire (+2 to hit w/pistol), Flank (+1 damage in HTH)
MV 90’
Al Chaotic
Mor 8
Also known as Orkboyz, these form the vast majority of any ork mob or WAAAGH! They are cruel creatures who have no word for diplomacy and solve every problem by fighting. They are normally armed with “Shootas” (the equivalent of a semi-auto pistol) and a “Choppa” (a sword or an axe). In missile combat, orks can use burst fire to get a +2 to hit. In HTH, if they are able to flank an opponent, they get +1 to all damage.

Oddboyz

These are orks with special skills not found in the typical ork trooper. These include Mekboyz, Painboyz, Runtherdz, Gretchin, Wildboyz, Snotlings, Nobs and Madboyz.

Mekboyz

HD 3
AC 2
Att 2d6 (thermal pistol) or 2d6 (power claw)
ST 15
Sp Life Support
MV 90’
Al Chaotic
Mor 9
Mekboyz are orks with the genetic encoding to create advanced technology. In combat, they wear powersuits that allow them to survive in hostile environments, to wield the otherwise dangerous to use thermal pistol and the strength to use a power claw.

Painboyz

HD 2
AC 6
Att 1d8 (pistol) or 3d6 (poison)
ST 16
Sp Cause Frenzy, Poison
MV 90’
Al Chaotic
Mor 8
Painboyz are what pass for field medics in ork mobs. In combat, they carry spiked gauntlets attached to canisters filled with what passes for ork medicine. When used against non-orks, it functions as a poison doing 3d6 damage (save for half). When used on an ork, it sends them into a frenzy. They gain +1 to hit and damage and are able to ignore death until they are at -10 hp.

Runtherdz

HD 3
AC 5
Att 1d6 (whip) or Special (Snotling Gun)
ST 15
Sp Snotling Swarm, Raise Morale
MV 90’
Al Chaotic
Mor 9
Runtherdz are those orks that are capable of corralling and controlling the smaller members of the ork mobs — the Gretchin and the Snotlings. When Getchin and Snotlings are within 60’ of a Runtherdz, they use the morale of the Runtherdz rather than their own.

Runtherdz sometimes use a specialized weapon called the Snotling Gun. It fires up to three Snotling Swarms (see below).

Gretchin

HD 1
AC 7
Att 1d6 (pistol) or 1d6 (knife)
ST 17
Sp none
MV 120’
Al Chaotic
Mor 6
Gretchin are either space ork young, or a smaller variety of ork. They are generally used as cannon fodder and the driven into combat by Runtherdz.

Snotling Swarm

HD 8
AC 7
Att Swarm 1d6
ST 9
Sp Swarm
MV 90’
Al Chaotic
Mor 10
Snotlings are the smallest of the ork-kin, and are generally seen as the most useless. Individually they have little courage and little combat prowess; however, orks have found that when sent en masse through a warp tunnel from a Snotling Gun, they go temporarily insane and start biting and clawing anything they come in contact with. Such a swarm will automatically do 1d6 damage to anyone in a 10’ square.

Wildboyz

HD 3
AC 7
Att 2d6 (great sword/axe)
ST 15
Sp Berserk Rage
MV 90’
Al Chaotic
Mor 10
Wildboyz are feral orks that have not yet exhibited the ability to build or maintain technology. In combat, they only wield primitive HTH weapons, but are able to induce in themselves a berserk rage which gives them a +1 to hit and damage in HTH and they are able to ignore death until they are at -10hp. If a wildboy is treated by a painboy, the effects are cumulative.

Nobs

HD 6
AC 2
Att 2d6+2 (mag pistol) or 2d6 (great sword/axe)
ST 11
Sp Morale Boost
MV 90’
Al Chaotic
Mor 12
Nobs are the “nobility” of the ork mob. They are some of the biggest and strongest of their kind, able to inspire their fellow orks to greater feats of chaos and destruction. All orks involved in a battle where a Nob is present increase their morale by 2.

Saintly Saturday: St. Zlata the New Martyr

Today is the Feast of the New Martyr Zlata (also known as St. Chryse). The title New Martyr refers to those who were martyred after the 4th century, when the first great period of persecution ended with St. Constantine issuing the Edict of Milan making Christianity legal within the Roman Empire. St. Zlata lived in the 18th century in the Bulgarian village of Slatena when Bulgaria was under Ottoman rule.

I am going to be blunt about this, because this story really isn’t very pretty. St. Zlata was kidnapped by a Muslim man who wanted to force the saint to become his wife. When she refused, she was beaten and held captive for almost a year. They tore strips of flesh off her back. A hot poker was shoved into her ears. Through it all she never wavered in her faith in Christ and refused the demands of her captors. When it finally became clear that she was not going to relent, they tied her to a tree and carved her flesh up into little pieces with knives.

This brings up a difficult topic, especially considering what is going on in the Middle East these days. Political correctness demands that I be tolerant of what many consider to be one of the great religions of the world. Unfortunately, Orthodox Christians have been victims of this great religion for centuries, almost from its very beginnings. The synaxarion (list of saints) is littered with New Martyrs like St. Zlata who suffered a similarly cruel fate.

Theologically, Orthodox Christianity and Islam could not disagree more. Indeed, I would argue that the theology of Islam is dangerous. It holds that there is only one soul that humanity shares. This strips us of our individuality, our uniqueness, our value and our free will— it dehumanizes everyone, especially those who refuse to accept Islam. When we, as human beings, dehumanize entire groups of people bad things follow. A quick scan of U.S. history is proof positive of this fact, and we aren’t even close to being the worst offenders.

This is where I wax philosophical about art and how it allows society a safe place in which to wrestle with issues that would otherwise be less than desirable water cooler talk. It is also here that I place RPGs within that large umbrella known as art.

As I have proved via this blog, RPGs are an art form that allows us to wrestle with Christianity — a subject that was virtually taboo in this corner of the internet when I began blogging several years ago. RPGs became a safe place in which to explore, discuss and otherwise deal with the relationship our lives and this hobby has with Christianity.

There are plenty of other difficult issues that RPGs have allowed our community to struggle with. Feminism — via the way this hobby has used both language and illustrations — has been a hot topic several times since I started paying attention to our little corner. Rape (via the existence of Half-Orcs) has been grappled with. Certainly freedom and what that word means has been part and parcel of the whole old school vs. new school discussion.

In other words, RPGs are a marvelous vehicle for us to wrestle with difficult issues in a similar way that other art forms do. Sometimes this struggle might be too uncomfortable to make the whole experience very much fun (which is the primary purpose of this hobby), but we can always dial things back and return to what originally brought us to this hobby.

Therefore, I don’t particularly mind folks like Mr. Raggi pushing the envelope (though I won’t be sending much of my own gaming budget his way). He is using this hobby to wrestle with those issues. In turn, I have found that a lot of folks have grown to appreciate my own proclivities, especially when it comes to how I allow my faith to inform my game. I hope to see the day where we can wrestle honestly with the issue of Islam and what it means for the average joe on the street. Maybe a cautious use of RPGs can help us get there.

Meditating on 2000cp

For a reason that is beyond me, there seems to be a meme going around this corner of the internet that the existence in a dungeon of a treasure hoard of 2000cp signifies that the creator of said dungeon is lazy. I take umbrage at such a concept, not because I think a round number of nearly worthless coins is as or more realistic than either a odd number or a collection of mundane items worth 20gp, but rather the underlying assumption of the criticism: Using random tables is lazy (because a treasure of 2000cp in most likely a result of a random treasure table).

As I noted yesterday, random tables are one of my favorite tools when it comes to playing RPGs. When used correctly, they are an endless fount of fodder for unexpected creativity. Treasure tables are no less a source of creativity than any other table. All it takes is a little work.

To take the 2000cp hoard that seems to be at the center of this meme, I have learned from years of gaming that adventurers are not very likely to waste their limited resources to bother with two thousand coins that are only worth 20xp and won’t even buy a short bow. This is especially true when said copper is part of a larger hoard that contains more valuable coinage and/or gems and jewelry. Those valuable resources will be spent recovering the more valuable treasure and the copper will be left behind without a second thought of its existence.

Thus, a treasure hoard of 2000cp may very well have been something left over from a hoard already looted by another adventuring party. A quick perusal of Labyrinth Lords’s treasure tables indicates that the hoard class most likely to produce 2000cp as part of a larger hoard is XXI.

Here is a list of creatures in LL that have a hoard class of XXI:

• Bugbear
• Ghoul
• Grey Worm
• Halfling
• Hydra
• Berserker
• Nixie

Therein are a plethora of stories about not only the hoard itself, but the dungeon in which it was found and the campaign world world in which the dungeon exists. Each of the these entries represent a former occupant of the dungeon that was defeated and looted. Thus, each should produce a series of questions that, when answered, lead to a much richer dungeon environment and a much richer campaign world.

For example: What was a group of halflings doing here? What adventuring group would kill and loot from halflings? Are they still around? Are there clues that could help the players hunt them down and demand justice?

Yet again, a whole bucket load of creativity from an innocuous result of a random table.

More on Magic Swords

Yesterday, I mentioned that there were three steps within the process of making an Ulfberht Sword that invited elaboration. Given that I suggested a campaign world with no other magic weapons than swords, it got me thinking about how to take advantage of these elaborations in order to make each magical sword, if not unique, than one with a bit of a back-story.

Thus, I have endeavored to produce one of my favorite things — a series of random tables — in order to come up with the formula used to create a sword based on the aforementioned three steps (thus giving the sword the seeds of a backstory). These tables assume that a magic sword is automatically +1 and that various methods of forging the sword might result in additional powers. Note: all bonuses are cumulative.

Table 1.1 Carbon Source (d10)

1. Animal Bones = Speak with Animals 3 x per day with the specific animal used
2. Monster Bones = Bane +1 vs. monster type
3. Humanoid Bones = Bane +1 vs. humanoid type
4. Incense = Bane +1 vs. Chaotic/Evil creatures
5. Dragon Bones = +1 plus Bane +1 vs. dragons
6. - 10. Normal Charcoal = no extra powers

Table 1.2 Rune Etching (d20)

1. Stone Rune = Damage Reduction of 1 while wielding the sword
2. Serpent Rune = +1d6 damage; however, this damage is applied to both the victim and the wielder of the sword
3. Ice Rune = Protection from Fire; glows in freezing temperatures.
4. Torch Rune = Light with a 30’ radius
5. Luck Rune = +1 to Saving Throws
6. Tree Rune = The magic bonus of the sword can be used as either a combat bonus or an AC bonus
7. Journey Rune = Dancing Sword
8. Thorn Rune = The wielder can go into a berserker rage (+1 HD, +1 damage, + 1 to Hit -1 AC penalty)
9. Hero Rune = Allows the wielder to increase both the number and morale of retainers one shift up on the Charisma table. If the Charisma is already 18, the number of retainers is 10 and the morale is 11 (based on B/X and LL).
10. Cross = Protection from Evil 10’ radius if wielded by a Lawful (Good)/Christian character
11. Chi Ro = +1 Bane vs. Chaotic/Evil creatures
12. - 20. Animal Rune = no extra powers

Table 1.1 Quenching Liquid (d12)

1. Oil = Flame Tongue; +1 vs. Cold/Ice- based Creatures
2. Holy Oil = Flame Tongue; + 2 vs. Undead
3. Holy Water = +1 Bane vs. Chaotic/Evil creatures
4. Monster (less than 4 HD) Blood = +1 Bane vs. Monster Type
5. Monster (4+ HD) Blood = +1 for every 4 HD (4-7 = +1; 8-11= +2; 12+ = +3)
6. Humanoid Blood = +1 Bane vs. Humanoid Type
7. Dragon Blood = +1 + Bane +1 vs. dragons
8. Ice/Snow = Bane +1 vs. Fire-based creatures
9. - 12. Water = no extra powers

For example: With the rolls 10, 7 and 2, the sword in question had normal charcoal, was inscribed with a Journey Rune and was quenched in Holy Oil. Thus it is a +1 Holy Sword of Dancing, +3 vs. Undead. Given this basic background, one could imagine it was forged in order to arm a crusader who was marching against the incursion of a necromancer's army, and could thus bear the name of a crusader saint.

These tables are, of course, only a rough draft and are certainly open to further revisions and additions. Any suggestions?

Meditating on Magic Swords

I just finished watching the most recent episode of Nova, entitled Secrets of the Viking Sword. It focuses on the science of medieval weapons, in particular the Ulfbehrt Sword wielded by pagan Vikings from about A.D. 800 to 1000.

Most weapons of that time were made of inferior steel with low carbon content and slag impurities that made them brittle and therefore prone to break in battle. This stemmed from the fact that European forges could not get hot enough for the slag to separate from the iron ore and the fact that metallurgists of the time relied on the ashes of the fire to add what little carbon the steel had.

Ulfberht Swords, however, were made of a high carbon steel with very little slag called crucible steel — an art form that would disappear from European metallurgy for several centuries after the last Ulfberht swords were made. Crucible steel made these swords both stronger and more flexible — qualities that made them devastating in the the close-quarter fighting of viking combat. Indeed, the show had a demonstration of how, compared to a roman-style sword, the Ulfberht design could cut through chain mail.

I, of course, watched this show not only through the lens of history and science, but of a fantasist who loves to use history and science to inform how I play FRPGs. I couldn’t help but think about how the vast majority of magic weapons in OD&D are swords. The process for making an Ulfberht blade is extremely time consuming and unforgiving. Thus, they were rare and often given names. In other words, the magic sword of OD&D is the analog of these viking blades.

Some of the steps involved in the making of the blade invite FRPG elaborations:

• The carbon used to make steel from iron ore could come from bones — bones of ancestors, animals or (in a fantasy setting) monsters.
• All Ulfberht Swords are etched with the symbols “+ULFBERH+T.” Intriguingly, the use of the cross seems to indicate some kind of power (an attempt at stealing the powers of their Christian adversaries?). Thus, here we have an origin for named and etched swords.
• Once forged, the sword is hardened by dipping it into some form of liquid. This could be water, oil or even blood (again, of animals, humans or monsters).

The secret of creating crucible steel was most likely gained from the East, where they knew the secret of Damascus Steel, which differs only in the cooling process (which is much slower and results in its signature crystalline patterns). Thus, either the steel itself was imported via the Volga trade route or the secret of its creation was lost. This invokes the idea of mythical metals like mithril and adamantium.

All of this has me re-thinking the idea of magic weapons and weapon proficiencies in D&D. In context of a fantasy analog of medieval Europe, I could easily buy the argument that the only magic weapons available are swords. Crucible steel is not wasted on any other kind of weapon and therefore every other type of weapon is of inferior quality — non-magical.

In this scenario, I could also see the possibility of allowing every class to use any weapon with one major limitation — only fighters can wield those magical swords. This accomplishes several things at once:

• The old saw about wizards using swords in source material is acknowledged.
• There is a very serious tip of the hat to an historic reality.
• It gives fighters a form of magic unique to their class — Magic-users = arcane; Cleric = divine; Fighter = sword.
• Finally, it pays homage to the original rules set, where most magic weapons were swords.