Variable Weapon Damage using Holmes & Cook

As I've written before, when it comes to d6 vs. variable weapon damage, I am not a partisan. Yes, in practice I use d6 damage; however, I am not 100% convinced I like it. Enter yesterday's post about creating an amalgam of the Holmes Basic edition and the Cook Expert edition. When the comments discussion turned to d6 vs. variable weapon damage, I pointed out Holmes has daggers able to attack twice per round. Then several good people pointed me in the direction of some sites that discuss Holmes and why daggers ought not be able to do so.

While all very good and fantastically interesting, my thought experiment is about combining Holmes with Cook, and the rule about daggers attacking twice per round (obviously making it an "uberweapon" with d6 damage) got me thinking about a way to combine Holmes and Cook to scratch an itch about weapon damage. What follows is a variable damage weapon table that also gives players a tactical element to weapon choice:

Small Weapons

These weapons are small and/or swift. While they do only d4 damage, they allow a character to have two attacks per round.

• Dagger
• Staff*

Thrown Weapons

These versatile weapons only do d6 damage but may be used both as a thrown weapon and as an HTH weapon.

• Hand Axe
• Spear
• Club

Penetrating Weapons

These weapons are good at getting through armor. Though they only do d6 damage, they are at a +1 to hit in HTH.

• Lance
• Mace
• Short Sword
• War Hammer

Standard Weapons

These are standard HTH weapons. They do d8 damage.

• Flail
• Morning Star
• Sword

Heavy Weapons

While these weapons do d10 damage, they are slow. Therefore, characters who use them always lose initiative.

• Battle Axe*
• Pole arm*
• Two-Handed Sword*

Missile Weapons*

• Bows do d6 damage but are +1 to hit.
• Crossbows do d10 damage but lose initiative when they need to be reloaded.
• Slings do d8 damage.

* = two-handed weapon

Any thoughts?

A Holmes Thought Experiment

In the afterglow (and recovery from) the celebration of Pascha (Easter), I was reading the introduction to the Cook-edited Expert D&D book and was transported in time back to 1981 when Moldvay's Basic first came out. On my way over to my best friend's house for our weekly get together, I got into an argument with him over which version of D&D was better — my Holmes Basic edition or his shiny new Moldvay Basic edition. There wasn't much substance to our argument (it was really just an "I've got a newer one, nya nya!" kind of fight), though I do remember scoring points because Holmes had stats for giants.

I had this flashback because Cook includes some tips for using my old Blue Book should I not have the Red Book version of the Basic rules (what he calls the "early edition of D&D Basic" and "older D&D Basic"). Cook explicitly states:

...in any place where the older D&D Basic rules and the new D&D Expert rules differ, the D&D Expert rules should be used…several charts from D&D Basic have been reprinted on the back of the title page for reference.

I remember buying the Expert book before I went out and bought Molday's Basic (and before we eventually all moved onto "Advanced" D&D because that was obviously better than "Basic" and "Expert"). Thus, there was a time in my life when following Cook's advice would have been necessary.

Here is where I came up with a little thought experiment. Given that my friends and I didn't have access to, the budget for or fell into the implied advertising campaign of AD&D, what would've happened if I continued to insist that the Holmes edition was better than Moldvay's? In other words, what would my home-brew D&D games look like if I did the opposite of what Cook recommended and I allowed Holmes to trump Cook?

Cook lists the major areas where the two rules differ (Alignment, Encumbrance, Weapons (both normal & magical), Monsters (where Expert emphasizes wilderness encounters and there a few statistical discrepancies) and Treasure (Holmes prefers random placement and has 5 copper = 1 silver), but there is an amazing amount of consistency. This amalgam of Holmes & Cook is not really that far out in left field.

There are a couple of significant differences and omissions that I really like, however, when Holmes is preferred over Cook where the two differ:

Characteristics

Characteristics are de-emphasized to a dramatic degree and their primary function is to determine whether or not someone gets an experience point bonus.

• No combat bonus for Strength.
• Intelligence gives the wonderful wonky percentage to know spells and a minimum number of known spells — which the Magic User appears to start with!
• No save bonus vs spell for Wisdom.
• Dexterity give only a bonus to hit with missile fire.
• Constitution still gives a hit point bonus (but only for 15 and above)
• Charisma is not a dump stat — it can save a character's life. High Charisma characters are more likely to be taken prisoner that be killed and their followers (both men and monsters) will stand by until death. There is no upper limit for the number of hirelings with high Charisma.

Classes

There is an absolutely fascinating little paragraph in Holmes about Additional Character Classes:

At the Dungeon Master's discretion a character can be anything his or her player wants him to be. Characters must always start out inexperienced and relatively weak and build on their experience. Thus, an expedition might include, in addition to the four basic classes and races (human, elven, dwarven, halflingish), a centaur, a lawful werebear, and a Japanese Samurai fighting man.

Couple this with the hints at paladins, rangers, illusionists, witches, monks, druids, assassins, half-elves and the idea that Dwarves and Halflings can advance as either Fighting-men or Thieves and elves are both Magic-Users and Fighting-men gives players a tremendous amount of freedom to fiddle with classes. In addition, this creates a nice little compromise between race-as-class (which I am a fan of) and those who want their dwarf or halfling to be something other than a dressed-up fighter.

Whereas there is plenty of information upon which to hypothesize a Halfling and Dwarven Thief, there really is no immediately apparent way to proceed with the other classes suggested. The half-elf seems to suggest an elf who can be either a Magic-User OR a Fighting-man.

Equipment

Personally, I love the touch that there are no holy symbols, only crosses!

Encumbrance

In practice, I tend to ignore encumbrance until it becomes obviously important (like how are you going to move 50,000 gold pieces?). I abstractly base movement rates upon armor worn. Therefore, I love the common-sense approach Holmes takes towards encumbrance — players list a location for every piece of equipment carried. If it doesn't make sense, you can't carry it.

Combat

I love the fact that Armor Class is a representation of a type of armor, rather than an abstract number. Sans a Dex bonus to AC, magic bonuses become a penalty to the attacker's roll. This opens the door to plausible Weapon vs. AC use.

Monsters

Gnolls are mentioned throughout Holmes. They exist in the wandering monster tables, as examples for spell targets, as a language demi-humans know and as the equivalent for how a kobold-chief should fight as. There is even an illustration that we modern gamers would recognize as gnolls (hyena-men); however, they are not among the monsters in the monster section. Nor are they in Cook's Expert edition. It is possible to infer that they are 2HD creatures (based on their place and number in Holmes' monster encounter tables) but zero description as what a gnoll actually is. Thus, we are free to make it anything that we want — I am personally tempted to go with Lord Dunsany's gnoles who appear to be gem-loving dark fey who live in hidden holes in trees.

Magic

Magic-users can spend 100gp and 1 week per spell-level to create scrolls! This gives them a tremendous amount of flexibility — if they can afford it. This is rather key, since in Holmes Magic-Users can only use daggers and they will always have an AC none with no bonuses to protect them at low levels.

Finally, Holmes has the Stone Mountain cross-section with its evocative Great Stone Skull, The Pit and Domed City & came with B1 rather than B2...

Christ is Risen!

It is the day of the Resurrection! Let us shine brightly for the festival, and also embrace one another. Brethren, let us say even to those who hate us, "Let us forgive everything for the Resurrection." And thus let us cry aloud, " Christ is risen from the dead; by death He has trampled death, and to those in the tombs He has granted life!"

Saintly Saturday: Sts. Agape, Chionia & Irene

Normally, April 23 is the feast day of St. George; however, he is so beloved by Orthodox Christians all over the world that if his feast falls within either Great Lent or Holy Week (as it does this year) it is transferred to the Monday after Pascha (Easter) so that it can be celebrated in its fullness. In this spirit, I will forego talking about St. George. Instead, I will write about a great story that I passed over in order to honor St. Lazarus last week. Last Saturday was also the feast of Sts. Agape (unconditional love), Chionia (snow) and Irene (peace) the holy virgin martyrs.

These three sisters were orphans who were brought up by a priest named Xeno (outsider). Having seen in a vision that the three virgins would die as martyrs, he urged them to endure all things for Christ. Shortly after his death, his vision came to fruition.

While visiting Aquilea in Italy (the vicinity where the three virgins lived), the Emperor Diocletian summoned Agape, Chionia and Irene into his presence after he was informed that they were Christians. Overcome by their physical beauty, he urged the virgins to denounce Christ and become brides of some in his entourage. They refused and were sent to Macedonia and the court of Governor Dulcititus. He, too, was enamored by the three virgins, only he wanted them for himself; however, when he tried to force himself on them, a physical force prevented him from finding their room. Disoriented, he ended tumbling through his own kitchen covered in soot. Enraged, he gave the three over to trial and execution.

The two eldest (Agape and Chionia) were burned (though in death, their bodies remained unburnt). Irene was sent to a brothel; however, two angels appeared as imperial soldiers and ordered her guard to leave her upon a high mountain. When they found out that their order had never been countermanded by their superiors, they went to hunt the virgin down. They found her on top of an unscalable summit. In anger and frustration, one soldier shot her through with an arrow.

***

The Mountain of the Three Virgin Martyrs

This remote mountain in the wilderness has a nearly unscalable summit, at the based of which is a life-like statue of a noble dressed in armor holding out his arm as if holding something and with a look of horror. Those who succeed in climbing to the top will be rewarded by the sight of three life-like statues of beautiful women, one of which holds an arrow. They are, in fact, the three bodies of virgin martyrs killed by the gaze of a medusa's head used as a nasty means of execution by an evil lord who used to rule over the land many years ago.

The three are sisters. The older two suffered the petrification while the third was to be sent to a brothel; however, the soldiers guarding her mysteriously left her in the wilderness next to the mount on which her petrified form now resides. When the evil lord learned of the deception, he hunted the girl down. When he found her atop the summit, he ordered her shot. When an arrow pierced her through, but did not seem to do her any harm, the evil lord pulled out the medusa's head. Though the gaze petrified the youngest sister, the evil lord was not careful due to his anger and was caught in the gaze himself. Today, no one knows where the medusa head is.

Those who see the three statues more than once will testify that they are in a different pose each time they see them. Indeed, many believe the petrified older sisters walked to the mountain top over the course of a century or so.

Anyone who climbs to the summit and asks for the intercessions of the three sisters will be given the effects of a Bless spell for the next 24 hours. Lawful characters who sleep on the summit will gain the effects of a Cure Light Wound spell.

Druids as Monsters Redux Part 3

Here are some more musings about the Druid Redux I have been working on in the last few posts:

The four Druidic cults do not like each other. This rivalry is particularly bitter between the Fire Druids and the Water Druids as well as between the Air Druids and the Earth Druids. These rivalries spawn from the fact these cults are particularly effective at canceling out each others' powers and therefore pose the greatest threat among all of the cults.

When faced with a bitter rival, a druid can cancel out a power/attack by sacrificing a combat round if they are of the same circle or higher than the power/attack being cancelled. For example, if a 3HD Fire Druid were attempting to shoot a fan of flame, a 3HD or higher Water Druid could spend a combat round canceling out the Fire Druid's attack.

Currently, the weakest cult is that of the Water Druids, because it was their stronghold that was decimated when the Temple of Elemental Evil was "destroyed." As a result, the Fire Druids are currently the most powerful of the cults. This has driven both the Air and the Earth Druids into a reluctant alliance with the Water Druids. Each is harboring and protecting the remnant Water Druids in order to counter the growing power of the Fire Druids. In the meantime, the remaining Water Druids are playing the other cults against each other and biding their time.

Although there are rumors of more powerful circles beyond the 8th (12 & 16HD elementals supposedly exist), no druid has ever managed to get beyond the 8th circle. Indeed, it has occurred to some that the 7th circle is actually more powerful than the 8th. [And it is. I did this on purpose in order emphasize the complete loss of humanity that comes with the 8th circle]. Though rare (because when found out they are hunted down and killed) there are rogue druids (normally of the 7HD variety) who are either seeking a way to increase their power while holding onto what remains of their humanity or that seek a way to gain back the humanity that they have lost.

Finally, there are also rumors of Druids who have successfully merged the disciplines of the various elements to create brand new circles such as mist, steam, mud, lava, etc. Given the rivalries that exist between the four main cults, however, such heretics are normally hunted down and killed.

Druids as Monsters Redux Part 2

Continuing with my thoughts from my last post, here are the stats for the other three classifications of Druids for use in my own version of the Temple of Elemental Evil:

Air Druids

Number Appearing: 1d6
% in Lair: 30%
Alignment: Chaotic
Armor Class: see below
Move: 120' (see below)
Hit Dice: 1 to 7
Attacks: 1 (damage see below)
Special: see below
Save: C1 for every HD
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: XVIII
XP: 1HD=10; 2HD=29; 3HD=65; 4HD=190; 5HD=650; 6HD=1320; 7HD=1840

These Chaotic cultists are completely dedicated to the annihilation of the self into becoming one with the element of air. Within the cult there are eight "circles" that the cultists advance through. Each circle as a corresponding power:

• 1HD = the cultist begins their journey to "union" by learning how to manipulate the air that is immediately about their person. The first application is effectively making a shell of swirling air. This grants the cultist an effective AC 2 against missiles and an AC 4 against other attacks
• 2HD = The cultist learns how to project his control of air at a distance. The result is a line-of-sight attack with no range penalties that does 1d6+1 points of damage. The cultist may fire off a number of these attacks per round equal to their HD/2 rounded up.
• 3HD = The cultist begins to learn to integrate the air around them into their own flesh. As a result they may Levitate as per the spell at will.
• 4HD = The cultist can now project much of their own physical self into the air around them. As a result they cast create an Obscuring Mist as per the spell once per turn.
• 5HD = As the cultist becomes more aware of their own presence in the air around them, they begins to radically affect the air around them. They can create a Gust of Wind as per the spell at will.
• 6HD = The cultist is now able to control air at a molecular level, able to create friction within the air itself. The result is massive amounts of static electricity which can be focused into a Lightning Bolt, as per the spell, 3 times per day.
• 7HD = At this point, the cultist is almost completely one with their chosen element. They are able to Fly as per the spell at will.

The eighth circle is the final transformation of the cultist into an 8HD air elemental. Whatever humanity and personality they had is completely destroyed. They have completely given themselves up in order to become one with air.

Fire Druids

Number Appearing: 1d6
% in Lair: 30%
Alignment: Chaotic
Armor Class: see below
Move: 120' (see below)
Hit Dice: 1 to 7
Attacks: 1 (damage see below)
Special: see below
Save: C1 for every HD
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: XVIII
XP: 1HD=13; 2HD=38; 3HD=95; 4HD=300; 5HD=950; 6HD=1820; 7HD=2790

These Chaotic cultists are completely dedicated to the annihilation of the self into becoming one with the element of fire. Within the cult there are eight "circles" that the cultists advance through. Each circle as a corresponding power:

• 1HD = the cultist begins their journey to "union" by learning how to acclimate themselves with fire. As a result, they are immune to all normal fire damage and take half damage from magical fire. A tactic they like to use in combat is to douse themselves in oil and set themselves on fire using a torch. Thus, anyone they hit in melee takes an extra 1d6 fire damage and anyone who hits them must make a save vs. breath or take 1d6 fire damage.
• 2HD = Having acclimated themselves to fire, the cultist learns how to spontaneously Produce Flame as per the spell at will.
• 3HD = The cultist begins to learn how to manipulate the fire they produce. They can create fan of flame in a 120' arc that shoot out 3' from their hands. Anyone caught in the flame take 1hp per HD of the cultist with no saving throw.
• 4HD = The cultist can now produce tremendous amounts of heat from their body, as they begin to internalize the flames that they produce. Thus, they can Heat Metal as per the spell at will.
• 5HD = The internal fire grows within the cultist and they are now able to throw a Fireball as per the spell three times per day (1d6 per HD).
• 6HD = The internal fire is now an inferno. The cultist can produce a Wall of Flame as per the spell at will.
• 7HD = At this point, the cultist is almost one with their chosen element. They can produce a Flame Strike as per the spell three times per day.

The eighth circle is the final transformation of the cultist into an 8HD fire elemental. Whatever humanity and personality they had is completely destroyed. They have completely given themselves up in order to become one with fire.

Water Druids

Number Appearing: 1d6
% in Lair: 30%
Alignment: Chaotic
Armor Class: see below
Move: 120' (see below)
Hit Dice: 1 to 7
Attacks: 1 (damage see below)
Special: see below
Save: C1 for every HD
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: XVIII
XP: 1HD=13; 2HD=38; 3HD=95; 4HD=245; 5HD=800; 6HD=1570; 7HD=2190

These Chaotic cultists are completely dedicated to the annihilation of the self into becoming one with the element of water. Within the cult there are eight "circles" that the cultists advance through. Each circle as a corresponding power:

• 1HD = the cultist begins their journey to "union" by adhering pockets of water to their skin. As a result, they have an effective AC of 4. In addition, in combat, the water blurs the cultist's outline. Opponents suffer a -2 to hit the first time they attack during combat.
• 2HD = The cultist learns to extend the water that now surrounds them to devastating effect. At will they can create a spray of water that has the same effect as a Color Spray spell.
• 3HD = The cultist begins to learn how to bend light itself with the water that surrounds them. Three times per day they can become Invisible as per the spell.
• 4HD = The cultist begins to internalize the water that surrounds them and they can breath in water as in air.
• 5HD = The cultist now begins to be able to affect water at a molecular level. They can create a Wall of Ice as per the spell at will.
• 6HD = The cultist's molecular control of water becomes more refined. They can produce an Ice Storm as per the spell three time per day.
• 7HD = At this point, the cultist is almost one with their chosen element. They can move through water better than they can air. While in water, they can move twice their ground movement.

The eighth circle is the final transformation of the cultist into an 8HD water elemental. Whatever humanity and personality they had is completely destroyed. They have completely given themselves up in order to become one with water.

Druids as Monsters Redux Part 1

Due to the fact that I've been working on a concept for a redux of the Temple of Elemental Evil, I've been inserting various ideas to play test into my current campaign. One such idea is having Druids as the movers and shakers behind the Elemental Cults that vie for power within the Temple. Thus, I snuck in a few druids among the Blighted Fist orcs to see how much fun I could have.

The results were not very inspiring. Whereas I can almost see why someone might enjoy playing a Druid (I've never been a big fan), as enemy combatants…(let me see if I can put this nicely)…they suck…er, they aren't any fun to play. "Do what I say or I'll warp wood!" just doesn't cut it and casting Entangle still requires closing and trying to survive while wearing only leather armor (read: suicide). Even when you get to monster-cool spells like Call Lightning, you have to be outside. Obviously, if I am going to have any fun at all with a Temple redux, it will require a redux of the Druid.

In the past I have posited two simple answers to the identity of pagan priests (aka Druids). The first is to dress up magic users in priestly garb. The second is to make Druids Anti-Clerics who are only able to use the reverse versions of Cleric spells. While both have their appeal (I even began the process of making elemental spell lists by uniting the spells lists of all the various spell casters in AEC), I really wasn't all that interested in playing around with classes, whether old, modified or new. Only when I remembered my own axiom — Druids are monsters! — did things begin to fall into place.

If I embrace Druids as monsters then I am free to scuttle all the trapping of class — spell lists, levels, XP, variable HD, allowable armor & weapons, etc. What I am left with is the beautiful simplicity of HD and special abilities. What has resulted is an alternate vision of Elementals and where they come from. This is compatible with cosmologies that range from the systemization of Gygax and those who simply want to deal with only the "prime material plane."

Since the impetus of this project is the Temple of Elemental Evil, there are four flavors of "Druids." The first in this series will be those dedicated the the Cult of Earth.

Earth Druids

People are mortal, and what they make with lawless hands is dead; for they are better than the objects they worship, since they have life, but the idols never had. — Wisdom 15:17

Number Appearing: 1d6
% in Lair: 30%
Alignment: Chaotic
Armor Class: see below
Move: 120'
Hit Dice: 1 to 7
Attacks: 1 (damage see below)
Special: see below
Save: C1 for every HD
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: XVIII
XP: 1HD=10; 2HD=29; 3HD=65; 4HD=190; 5HD=650; 6HD=1570; 7HD=2540

These Chaotic cultists are completely dedicated to the annihilation of the self into becoming one with the element of earth. Within the cult there are eight "circles" that the cultists advance through. Each circle has a corresponding power:

• 1HD = the cultist begins their journey to "union" by fusing bits of earth to their skin. Thus, the cultist has an AC of 4.
• 2HD = The cultist begins to be able to manipulate the fused earth on their skin. They are able to form vicious spikes on their fists. They gain a +1 to hit in melee and do 2d4 damage.
• 3HD = The fusion of earth to skin is complete. The cultist now has an AC of 2.
• 4HD = Now begins the process of fusing muscle to earth. The cultist gains an 18 STR — +3 to hit and damage.
• 5HD = The outer crust of the cultist becomes so hard that they are now immune to normal missiles.
• 6HD = The cultist begins to have control over earth. They may Stone Shape at will and 3 times per day may encase targets in contact with the ground (or a wall made of stone) in earth with the same effect as Hold Person.
• 7HD = At this point, the cultist is almost completely one with their chosen element. They are able to pass through stone and earth as if it were air.

The eighth circle is the final transformation of the cultist into an 8HD earth elemental. Whatever humanity and personality they had is completely destroyed. They have totally given themselves up in order to become one with earth.

Lost Colonies Session 37

This was one of the shortest sessions of the campaign, and one of the most brutal. The party decided to delve back into the lair of the Blighted Fist orcs and very quickly found the dragon — but not before the party had made enough noise killing off guards and vandalizing the place that the dragon was completely aware of the invaders. As a result, the party walked right into a buzz saw.

Hamlen, Grak and Orysus all failed their saving throw vs. breath weapon and died. Dn. Goram managed to avoid death and charged the beast in hopes of giving the survivors enough time to escape. The rest of the party, however, had different ideas. One of the things the characters had managed to salvage from the space ship were some unstable energy packs (one of the ways that they managed to cause the reactor meltdown that destroyed the ship just after they managed to escape). Ahkmed, using his ring of invisibility, carefully placed the packs next to the dragon, along with some black power.

Since his own plan had failed to find fruition, Dn. Goram, in desperation, pulled out the Two Swords. He felt a presence well inside him and a voice declared, "I'll take care of this." He then saw a vision of a saint standing before him, expertly wielding the Two Swords.

In the meantime, Fedorsha took aim at the black power/energy pack combo. The result was a massive explosion that took out the dragon. At this point, Ahkmed pulled out some of the preservation formula he had collected from the dwarven monastery and covered the bodies of the dead party members in a desperate attempt to give them time to find a way to raise them from the dead. They raided the treasure hoard (guarded by a pair of rot grub-infested pits, which they easily got through by casting Resist Fire upon themselves and then setting themselves on fire). They took what they could carry, got onto their giant eagles and got home to Headwaters as quickly as they could.

On the way, Dn. Goram used Speak with the Dead to confer with each party member as to their wishes (both to see if they wished to be raised and if not, what to do with their belongings). The session ended as he then arranged for the party to head to the Monastery of St. Urheim to not only complete his quest to restore to Two Swords to their proper place, but to try to contact the saint himself, in an attempt to find a way to raise his dead compatriots.

Saintly Saturday: St. Lazarus

Every year on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, the Orthodox Church celebrates St. Lazarus the Friend of Christ. We read the account of Christ raising him from the dead in the eleventh chapter of John in anticipation of the resurrection that we will see on Pascha (Easter). Because the chief priests wanted to do him harm (see John 12:10), Lazarus fled the Holy Land and ended up in Cyprus. There, he became the first Bishop of Kition (modern day Larnaca).

In one of the most interesting (and, for me, most personal) stories of his time in Cyprus, St. Lazarus missed his family and friends so deeply that he sent a boat to get the Virgin Mary and others to come visit him. On their journey to Cyprus, a storm blew them off course and they ended up on Mt. Athos (a peninsula in northern Greece). The locals were converted to Christianity and today the mountain is the spiritual center of Orthodox monasticism (it has twenty monasteries, a dozen sketes and several hermitages and the monks there still have a very special relationship with the Virgin Mary).

The Gospel According to John makes a very big deal out of the fact that Lazarus had been dead four days prior to being raised from the dead. This was important, because at four days, the body began to stink — someone was really dead and beyond the hope of resuscitation. This is why Christ rose on the third day — He was not to see any corruption (decay, putrefaction, etc.). In other words, the only way that Lazarus could have been raised from the dead was if God Himself had done so.

This is in stark contrast to the various editions of D&D, which place the number of days a person could be dead prior to the casting of Raise Dead at either 4 days + 4 days/level above 8 of the spell caster or 1 day/level of spell caster. Thus, for those who worry about the ramifications of a world with Raise Dead readily available, Scriptural tradition actually provides for a bit of control — 3 days or nothing.

***

The Shroud of St. Lazarus

This holy relic appears to be a battered and stained cloth, though it detects strongly of divine magic. Its efficacy only becomes apparent, however, when used to wrap the body of someone recently dead. As long as the body is wrapped within three days of death, the Shroud of St.Lazarus prevents putrefaction. While so wrapped, a Raise Dead spell may be successfully cast upon the body no matter how long it has been since death.

A Different Kind of Megadungeon

Awhile ago, Staples of Grognardling began blogging about his efforts to create a megadungeon based upon various philosophies within the OSR. One of his inspirations was one of my own maps:

His own efforts got me thinking about a way that I could turn my own experimental map into a megadungeon. Step one in this thought process was to replace each room in the map with an entire dungeon area. Step two was to completely re-tool that marvelous old-school trope of the endless stair. The result has been a multi-level megadungeon with hundreds of encounter areas that for all intents and purposes uses only one map for each and every level.

First, a little background: as I've stated before, one of my all-time favorite modules is T1 The Village of Hommlet; however, one of my biggest disappointments was T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil. I have always wanted to do my own version of the Temple, but have never been satisfied with the several aborted beginnings I've made over the years. Thus, when I started musing about doing a megadungeon based upon my experimental map, I immediately began musing about a potential TEE redux.

Thus, the top level of this dungeon is the Temple as found in T1-4. Immediately beneath are catacombs, roughly in the form of an eight pointed star. This corresponds to the central room in my experimental map above. Each"point" in the star has a pair of locked double doors. These doors lead to dungeon areas inspired by the alchemical signs for Sun, Moon, Air, Earth, Fire and Water (and each corresponds with a different room in my experimental map). The Sun and Moon have two sets of doors leading to them and the others have one each.

Every area has a pair of teleportation rooms (just as each room does in the map above). One of the teleportation rooms in the Air, Earth, Fire and Water regions teleport the party to an identical dungeon located somewhere else (either on the same campaign world or potentially a different prime material plane). The other (requiring a key) will teleport the party outside the dungeon to a given spot (thus, mimicking the endless stair concept).

One of the teleportation rooms in the Sun and Moon regions requires four different keys (one for each of the four elements) to operate. It will teleport the party to a section of the dungeon inaccessible any other way. Within this inaccessible area is a teleportation room that will send the party to some fantastic place (such as a space station orbiting the sun or a moon base).

There are effectively four levels to this megadungeon (with each "level" existing in completely different places). Each one is dominated by a sect with the TEE cult dedicated to one of the elements. Only one of these levels (and thus, only one sect) was decimated by the forces of good that "destroyed" the Temple. These sects are bitter rivals, made only worse by the decimation of one of the sects. Each is trying to find their way into the inaccessible areas of the dungeons in order to gain access to the fantastic "magic" available to those who find themselves orbiting the sun or on the surface of the moon. Ironically, their rivalry is preventing any one of them from succeeding (because they need the keys from each of the sects).

I am very interested to see how this plays out. Map-making will be critical, because once one level is mapped out, the whole dungeon is mapped out giving the party the opportunity to carefully plan their expeditions.

Here is the rough draft of the map that I came up with for this concept. Enjoy:

Megadungeons

I've been meditating on megadungeons recently. Intellectually, I adore them. Although there are plenty of historical examples of dungeons underneath cities, megadungeons don't really make much sense from a realistic, practical point of view. And I don't care. They are all about exploring weird, scary and mysterious places. They are all about delving into the mythical underworld. They only need to have a sort of internal logic and *BOOM* my suspension of disbelief is firmly in place, and I am ready for the ride.

Speaking of internal logic (and a great way to spend the time), a fantastic way to come up with a megadungeon that has a history, of sorts, is the game How To Host a Dungeon. I usually will stop play when things look "interesting" and record a map, inhabitants, etc. Here is an example of one of my favorites:

To date, no one has found this place. It exists, somewhere, waiting to be explored. . .

Saintly Saturday: St. Eupsychios the Martyr

Today is the feast day of St. Eupsychios the Martyr. Considering the recent flap about a pastor burning a Koran down in Florida, St. Eupsychios is an extraordinarily politically-incorrect saint to be celebrating. He lived during the reign of Julian the Apostate (331/332-June of 36). The title Apostate refers to someone who renounces a religion. In his short reign, Julian tried to re-impose a systematized paganism over and against the Christianity that had taken hold of the Roman Empire. Whether he himself was once a Christian or he simply represented the renunciation of Christianity in the office of the Emperor, I cannot say for certain.

St. Eupsychios was on his way to getting married when he and others saw a sacrifice being offered at the pagan temple to Fortuna (a cult beloved of the Emperor). Seeing this, the groom-to-be led a group that destroyed the temple. Enraged, not only did Julian have Eupsychios tortured and beheaded, but he gathered an army to raze the city (Caesaria in Cappadocia) on his way to fight the Persians. He was diverted from this task by the bishop of Caesaria (St. Basil the Great) and subsequently died in battle from a stray spear. Legend has it that the spear was thrown by St. Mercurius (a Cappadocian martyr from a century before).

Setting aside the real-world merits and consequences of St. Eupsychios' zealotry, I can't help but meditate on one of the most beloved of Gygax's modules (and one of my all-time favorites) — T1 The Village of Hommlet.

We are told at the beginning of the module of a battle to destroy the Temple of Elemental Evil:

So great was the slaughter, so complete the victory of good, that the walled stronghold of the Temple of Elemental Evil fell within a fortnight, despite the aid of a terrible demon.

Interesting parallel, is it not? When one re-reads T1, there are those who go to the newly established Church dedicated to St. Cuthbert and those who cling to the Old Faith (along with a local Druid). If one recasts this module in terms of paganism vs. Christianity, the questions posed about Hommlet by Gygax for the players in his introduction are given added depth:

Will outsiders be shunned? Are reports of the whole community engaging in evil practices true? Are the folk here bumpkins, easily duped? Does a curse lay upon those who dare to venture into the lands which were once the Temple's?

Imagine, for a moment, if the open worship of St. Cuthbert's God is a recent phenomenon made possible by the conversion of those in political power. What if we recast the Viscount of Verbobonc in the role of Julian the Apostate? What if he were were either openly or secretly funding the renewal of the Temple?

Suddenly, Hommlet is transformed into a hotbed of political intrigue where every person in town who clings to the Old Faith is a potential spy for the Viscount and therefore the Temple. If the module (and implied campaign) goes ahead as written, the players will play the role of St. Eupsychios and risk the wrath of the Viscount, inviting an exciting end-game.

***

The Spear of St. Bywarian

This item, though it will radiate magic if detected, appears to be a rusted spearpoint upon a broken shaft. Its efficacy as a weapon depends upon the alignment of the target. Against Lawful creatures, it will function as a Staff of Healing. Against Neutral creatures, it will function as a normal spear. Against Chaotic creatures it will function as a +1 magic weapon and do double damage if the "to hit" roll is 5 or higher than the target number. For example, if the target number is 14 and the roll is 19 or 20, than the damage will be doubled.

Lost Colonies Session 36

For a variety of real-life issues, this session saw a very small table. Faced with the choice of putting off play until such time that folks could actually show or coming up with some lame excuse as to why everyone else's character couldn't participate in the session, we decided on the latter. Given that the party was trudging through the wilderness where they knew an active orc lair existed, we decided that the characters and henchmen of the players who showed were outriders for the party — scouting out ahead to root out any wandering monster encounters.

The evening began with a night encounter with a Troll who seemed to be in command of a group of blind-folded, feral orcs. Armed with nothing but brutally spiked gauntlets, they bore a wide variety of nasty scars and had been branded on their stomach and chest with the tribal symbol of the rot- grub-tossing-orcs that they had encountered on their way out to the Dwarven mountains.

Desperate to track these orcs back to their lair, they were forced by darkness to wait until morning, when they woke to a nasty surprise. The orc's bodies decomposed at a much faster rate than one might expect and out of the muck emerged several small carrion crawlers. Though these were relatively easily dispatched, it greatly disturbed the party.

In the daylight, they managed to find a series of cave openings that they hoped would turn out to be the lair. As a side note, we decided to make extensive use of miniatures for this session. My players have been hinting that they would like to and given the relative complexity of some of the encounter areas, I didn't really mind the visual aids. It actually made the combats go quite smoothly.

In process, they encountered orcs decked out in leather aprons with long leather gloves armed with tongs. They discovered the purpose of these outfits when they interrupted some kind of ceremony where the tongs were being used to place rot grub on the stomachs of other orcs. They also found a "birthing" room where it seemed orcs were being manufactured. Mixed in among all of this were some carrion crawlers (which the party accidentally made angry) and a type of carrion-undead that caused those that looked upon them to be frozen in fear.

The most intriguing part of this session was the way a bunch of 1 and 2 HD creatures affected a mid-level party (ranging from 3rd to 6th level). Although the party PCs were immobilized a number of times via entangle spells, paralyzation and fear (leaving the henchmen to do the heavy combat lifting) no one was ever really in danger of dying. Rather, this session was all about resource management. Things like ammunition, torches, oil, spells, potions and scrolls got eaten up. When the party decided to retreat back to their camp, it was not due to low hit points, but rather because they had run out of virtually all of the above.

Meditating on Maps

This month Dyson Logos of A Character for Every Game is hosting the RPG Blog Carnival. The theme du jur for April is Cartography, which got me to thinking about my own obsession with maps and how that has continuously manifested in a desire to play RPGs.

I suppose I have to credit my dad. When I was a kid, he would insist on driving places for family vacations. I would get carsick in the back seat, so I was graduated to the front seat, where my dad would make me the navigator. Thus, I have always strongly associated maps with exploration — all those abstract symbols represented something real that I could go see. This was the seed that would later spore into a full blown obsession; however, despite the fact that I had been paying D&D for several years, had studied Tolkien's maps for hours on end and had dreamed of fantasy worlds of my own, it wasn't until I ran across a map of a fantasy world created by my dad when he was kid that I really began to appreciate the power of maps.

My dad has always harbored a love for all things related to rails. His basement is a maze of electric rail sets that have three distinct destinations (a mine and two towns), he has an ever growing collection of train time tables and his childhood was defined by the electric rail system that used to dominate Cleveland. He still dreamily remembers being able to leave home with a quarter, take the electric train, see a Saturday Matinee and come home with change.

Thus, his fantasy map was not of a Sword & Sorcery world filled with magic, lost civilizations and ancient secrets. His was a world of modern transit. He had cities connected by roads, tram systems and railways. There were places with names like Forgetown, Valley Port, Willowgrove and Bannocksburg. I was taken in. What did these cities produce? When did people move there? Why did they get those names? Who lived in these places? How can I explore and see the reality of something that does not exist?

The answer came in the form of Pro Foto-Football. I came up with a football league based on the cities on my dad's map. I designed all their uniforms, came up with a schedule and a random means of choosing offensive and defensive plays for each team. Then I played out I can't remember how many seasons.

A game, using random tables (Pro Foto-Football) became the means by which I was able to interact with my dad's map in order to tell a story. Thus, maps aren't just a means to tell you how to get from point A to point B. They are a tool for interactive story-telling. They imply questions like: What does that look like? How did it get there? Why is it called that? Why is it there in the first place? etc. Maps invite us to answer these questions, even when the places don't really exist. Most importantly (for me at any rate), games are the best outlet for answering these questions.

I could have written a story about my dad's fantasy world and have answered all my questions via a piece of fiction; however, maps are about exploration. If I'm making up the story and making all the decisions for myself, I can't be surprised and I can't really discover anything. Games — especially the interactive story-telling of RPGs — with their built-in randomness allow for that discovery and surprise.

Sure, I could decide that this particular ruin is occupied by bandits and that they have allied themselves with an evil cult trying to recover from a near death blow from the forces of civilization and good. But it is so much more fun when that story emerges from a couple of random rolls on a table when a party of adventurers that I have no control over interact with them…

Ecology of the Rot Grub

This is an example of what happens when random rolls, Gygaxian naturalism and OSR goodness get mixed within the recesses of my imagination. Awhile back, a simple random wilderness encounter turned into the Blighted Fist orc tribe (itself a randomly generated name). Playing off this name, I decided to give these orcs a special weapon — clay pots full of Rot Grub. In prepping for my players' most recent foray into the wilderness, I rolled up an encounter with a dragon in the same territory occupied by the Blighted Fist. In my mind, these two random encounters ought to be related somehow. . . it's that fuzzy warm place in my mind where I actualize my own distorted version of Gygaxian naturalism.

When I get a series of random encounters that share the same space, I like to try and link them via an ecology that makes sense — somehow, whether biologically or socially, these creatures have a relationship. Contemplating the disparate encounters of orcs and dragons, two things formed the foundation for this relational ecology. The first was a nice little post by Dyson Logos over at A Character for Every Game where he re-skinned some dragons with a variety of cool concepts. The second was a comment on a post at Grognardia musing on purple worms that postulated the cool factor of purple worms being the larval stage of dragons. The link between these two was the lowly Rot Grub.

I decided to steal Dyson's idea of the Carrion Dragon since it fit nicely with the Rot Grub theme. Imagining that the Rot Grub is a kind of (very nasty) egg, I added this wrinkle: 1 in 6 Rot Grubs won't go for the heart, but rather for the stomach. When they come into contact with the stomach acid, they start to produce a chemical that serves two purposes: 1) it starts a metamorphic process that will result in the larval stage 2) it causes the adrenal gland in the victim to go into overdrive.The result is the victim is driven mad/transformed into a berserker. Riffing off the Carrion Dragon, the larval stage is the Carrion Crawler. The overactive adrenal gland serves two purposes — it protects the egg in its initial metamorphosis, and it eventually leads to the death of the host giving the small Carrion Crawler its first meal.

The Blighted Fist enters the picture as willing hosts to the Carrion Dragon's eggs. The orcs see the dragon as a kind of avatar bearing divine gifts that transforms worthy recipients into uber-orcs. As such, they have become a bunch of zealous fanatics dedicated to the care, feeding and harvesting of the Rot Grub eggs and their Carrion Crawler hatchlings. These uber-orcs are created during ceremonies in which Rot Grubs that are most likely to go to the stomach instead of the heart are chosen and placed onto the stomach of those orcs undergoing the "transformation." If the wrong Rot Grub is chosen, the victim orc was "not worthy." Those who receive the eggs successfully are transformed into a berserker class of orcs. Upon their death a small 1HD version of the carrion crawler will eat its way out of the corpse in 1d12 hours. The Blighted Fists shower their enemies with Rot Grubs in order to feed enough so that they are ready to go into the stomach of a willing orc.

In turn, when the carrion crawlers have engorged themselves enough on rotting flesh, they will form a cocoon. Eventually, a young carrion dragon will emerge. Upon reaching adulthood, these dragons will start producing Rot Grub and the whole process begins again.

Saintly Saturday: St. Titus the Wonderworker

Titus the Wonderworker was a monastic saint from the ninth century. He was called to the ascetic lifestyle from his youth and he became a monk at the Studion monastery outside of Constantinople. He was beloved of his fellow monks and through their requests, St. Titus became a priest. He defended the use of icons during iconoclasm and lived into his old age.

The title Wonderworker refers to a classification of saint through which God has chosen to work miracles. Most often, these miracles include:

• Healing of physical and spiritual illness
• Raising from the dead
• Physical feats of great wonder
• Healing of Demonic Possession
• Myrrh-streaming relics and icons

From this perspective, all Clerics in D&D are Wonderworkers — which leads me to think of that brilliant observation from the Incredibles: when everyone is special, no one will be. In a world where magic is an everyday occurrence, what constitutes a "wonder?"

Beedo over at Dreams in the Lich House recently delved into the DMG about how Clerics get their spells. At first glance, it might seem to answer the implied question posed by the title Wonderworker in that low level spells are merely training (i.e. they can be understood as mundane) whereas higher level spells (3rd level and higher) are granted through prayers, intermediaries and the deity itself.

My major quibble with this understanding of Cleric spells is that it runs counter to a Christian worldview. In the Orthodox tradition, chrismation (what has become confirmation in Western Christendom) happens at baptism. The person being brought into the Church is sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself. Indeed, those who are baptized and chrismated are called the newly illumined because they shine forth the light of God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit. We are the temple of God. Thus, there is no separation between a Christian and God as implied by the DMG's understanding of Clerical magic.

In addition, Christian tradition understands ordination as a laying on of hands wherein the candidate is given a special chrism from the Holy Spirit for the ministry. Thus, Clerics would have an even more intimate relationship with God specifically for the purpose of being a Cleric.

There are several ways to deal with the question of the Wonderworker and honor this Christian understanding. The first I've already spoken about in a previous post. In short, the only sort of the Cleric that does adventuring is the deacon. Thus, bishops and priests are almost entirely low-level Clerics. Couple this with the fact that in older editions of the game Clerics don't get spells until 2nd level, and then the healing-by-magic thing becomes severely limited and very rare. There is, however, the implication that PC Clerics will begin to have the reputation of being a Wonderworker and might get very popular indeed (not always a desirable thing).

The second accepts magic as normal for those campaigns that use later editions (or LL) and that embrace the implication of level names — high level Clerics are bishops. Note the last example in the list of miracles above. In a fantasy world where magic is abundant and normal, myrrh-streaming relics and icons could be the standard by which a saint is called a Wonderworker.

The last option is one that takes the DMG take on Cleric magic and modifies it with a splash of the first option. If first and second level Cleric spells are re-skinned as mundane skills (CLW is medical training rather than magical healing), than the implied period of testing (as stated in Moldvay's Basic that Clerics must prove their devotion to their god) can be expanded until the reception of 3rd level spells. It is at this point that the Cleric character is ordained.

Given my own understanding of the deacon-as-adventurer, this still limits the level of priests and bishops as well as the amount of actual divine magic in a fantasy RPG; however, it does add a very nice level of spice to the progression of the Cleric character. The player is forced to ask various questions about their character: will they be celibate or married? will they retire from adventuring in order to be a priest or a bishop? are they really ready to dedicate the rest of their life as clergy?

There are a couple of very interesting implications from this third option:

• Low-level Clerics are laymen. This opens up the possibility for monastics to simply be low-level Clerics without the implication of ordination.
• It also opens up the possibility for characters to be low-level Clerics without formal training (the spells represent natural abilities), but get the notice of the Church through their adventuring.
• In order to get 3rd level + spells, one has to be ordained and be within the Church; however, one could theoretically continue to advance in levels outside the Church, but never receive any spells beyond 2nd.
• Should there be an option beyond this for Cleric characters who decide not to get ordained? Could they be allowed to dual class?

The life of St. Titus, by the way, implies the third option...

Lost Colonies Sessions 33, 34 & 35

You might have noticed that I haven't posted any Lost Colonies session reports for awhile. This is primarily because I've been fairly busy and the party has been doing virtually the same thing for the last three sessions. Thus, I've waited until now to write it all down.

I took (what I thought was) a big risk with my campaign. Dn. Goram was Geased to find and return the Two Swords to the Lost Temple underneath the Monastery of St. Urheim. Ahkmed the Dwarf has a map to some kind of dwarven treasure/lost colony (actually a slightly modified version Mr. Raggi's Hammers of the God). I had also recently bought Realms of Crawling Chaos and was eager to integrate ideas from it into my campaign. As a result, I decided to give Dn. Goram a clue to lead him in the direction of the Dwarves (who live in a mountain range to the southwest of Headwaters) and happily placed elements from RCC and Hammer of the God in the area. The risk: the Two Swords had been placed into another dimension by some monastic dwarves in order to protect them. That other dimension happened to be a spaceship.

Thus, the dwarven monastery occupied by white apes and their minions was full of RCC-derived stuff and sat upon the mountain where I placed Hammers of the God. The party succeeded in clearing out the dwarven monastery of its ape-like occupants, fended off an attack by some harpies and their slaves and proceeded to manufacture the formulae that would allow them to dimension hop. This required some uncomfortable ingredients — some of which they were able to find in the monastery, others they had to procure.

After quaffing the first dose of the formulae, the party found themselves in a spaceship (though it took awhile for them to realize this, given my method of trying to describe things like plastic and computer screens). When it dawned on my players what I was doing, one gleefully exclaimed "We're playing a little Gamma World today!" Despite my trepidations for so blatantly breaking genre, my players had a terrific time. They encountered a number of slime-like creatures with a variety of special abilities and immunities (and proved to be quite a challenge for the party). The party was quite shocked when one such creature swallowed Dn. Goram whole. Fortunately for him, the four-hour-dimension-hop ended before he was digested.

The exploration of the ship required three separate trips. They found a variety of tools and food-stuff that was the equivalent of treasure as well as the remains of the crew that apparently died some time ago in a mysterious manner. In addition, they found a type of prison where a number of strange creatures were being held in stasis (including a shocking number of mind flayers). They found what they believe to be the Two Swords and managed to retrieve them both, but not before messing around with the ship's nuclear reactor. Their actions caused a meltdown which was going to destroy the ship and everyone on it. Fortunately, the party was prepared and cast a Dispel Magic to pull them back into their own dimension before the whole ship went boom.

These three sessions ended up being some of the most rewarding I've had during this whole campaign. It combined some of the things I like best about old-school play: exploration driving plot, deadly combat, genre bending locales and player freedom and creativity. My players really enjoyed themselves and wanted to know more about the mystery of the ship and what it was all about.

As a result, they decided to find the dwarves and report to them what they found. In process, they discovered that the Dwarves blame one of their own for the fall of the Thassalonian Colonies, of which the appearance of the Golden Masks was a consequence. They warned the party against pursuing Ahkmed's map (much to my own disappointment). The party did some trading and began to establish some economic ties to the Dwarves (who were extremely interested in some of the technology the party brought back with them from the ship).

Finally, Ahkmed found out he is now what the dwarven loremasters call a Bane-Bearer. His sword Hornet was forged along with several other weapons. Each is a bane of a specific race. They were created in an attempt to keep peace between the various races; however, an evil dwarf managed to collect them all and wreck havoc upon the races. Since his defeat, these Bane-Weapons had been lost — until now.

One final note: when I began doing these session reports, one of the things I was interested in observing was how a bunch of players who came into the hobby with 3.5 would react to old-school rules and play. After 35 sessions I can now report that all of the guys in my group have officially dropped 3.5 in favor of a variety of older rulesets (primarily AD&D and LL). Interestingly, one of them has gone out of his way to buy a bunch of Judges Guild stuff (having been introduced to their existence through my campaign). As he was excitedly reporting to me some of his finds, he exclaimed, "The old stuff is so much better than the new stuff!" To riff off ye auld bard, the play is the thing.

Saintly Saturday: Archangel Gabriel

Today is the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, where the word Synaxis means gathering. A Synaxis happens the day after a major feast day (yesterday was the Annunciation) and they highlight figures that take part in those major feasts. For example, the day after Epiphany (the baptism of Christ) is the Synaxis of St. John the Baptist.

The name Gabriel is often translated as God is mighty or the strength/power of God (where el means God); however, the most literal translation is Man-God. Thus, his name is a prophecy of the Incarnation of Christ (who is perfect God, perfect Man) whose conception Gabriel announces.

The word angel means messenger. This is one of the primary functions of angels, as seen by Gabriel giving the Virgin Mary the message that she is to give birth to the Christ. He also appears as a messenger in both the Book of Daniel (see 8:16 and 9:21) as well as the first Chapter of Luke where he appears to Zachariah, the father of St. John the Baptist (1:19; 26). Traditions in both Christianity and Judaism also credit him with the following:

• Inspiring Moses to write Genesis
• Inspiring Moses to write the Pentateuch (the first five books of the OT)
• Announcing the birth of the Virgin Mary to her parents Joachim and Anna
• Calming Joseph in a dream, telling him that Mary's pregnancy was miraculous
• Appearing to the shepherds near Bethlehem at the Nativity
• Being the mysterious young man wearing nothing but a linen garment who fled naked from Gethsemene (Mark 14:51-52)
• Announcing the Resurrection to the Myrrh-bearing Women

As an archangel (where arch means over) he is called a commander of angels, who are organized into various classifications (as delineated in the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great):

• Angels
• Archangels
• Thrones
• Dominions
• Principalities
• Authorities
• Powers
• Cherubim
• Seraphim

Note two interesting characteristics of angels described in the following hymn — they are immaterial and they preserve and protect:

Gabriel, commander of the heavenly hosts,
we who are unworthy beseech you,
by your prayers encompass us beneath the wings of your immaterial glory,
and faithfully preserve us who fall down and cry to you:
"Deliver us from all harm, for you are the commander of the powers on high!" —Apolytikion of the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel

In Orthodox Christianity, angels are most often referred to as the heavenly bodiless powers and are considered part of the invisible creation, though they are able to manifest as visions and people — the most fantastic of which are the many-eyed Cherubim who wield flaming swords (see Gen 3:24; Eze 10:1; and Rev 4:6). During the liturgy, the faithful petition God "For an angel of peace, a faithful guide, a guardian of our souls and bodies" as well as "the protection of the honorable, bodiless powers of heaven."

Thus, one of the easiest ways to include the presence of angels in a Fantasy RPG setting would be to re-skin protection spells and magic items as angelic intervention. For example, Protection from Evil could manifest as a pair of translucent wings that envelop the one being protected.

With a little imagination, there are very few spells (Animate Dead being one) from the LL Cleric spell list that cannot easily be re-skinned with some kind of angelic special effect. Detection spells can take the form of whisperings in the ear. Remove Fear can take the form of a shield and sword wielding angel that inspires the recipient out of their fright. Offensive spells could take the effect of an angel striking down their target.

This re-skinning also implies a need to closely adhere to the will of God. If a cleric were to use one of his spells to attack a village, for example, it would make perfect sense for the spell to fail. Or, in another example, if a Hold Person spell were taken advantage of to easily kill an opponent, the spell could cease to function in order to give the victim a chance to defend itself.

***

The Shield of the Seraphim

These shields appear as normal round shields emblazoned with the six-winged form of a Seraphim. In combat, they function as a +1 shield; however, if the wielder asks for angelic protection, this +1 may be transferred to any one else the wielder chooses in the form of an AC or saving throw bonus. In addition, every other round, the wielder can negate any hit suffered from someone other than themselves if they forego any attacks for that round.

Armor Class without Shields

One of my favorite renditions of Swords & Wizardry is Mike Davison's Ruins & Ronin. One of the minor tweaks that I enjoy is the way R&R handles armor and AC. Since the Japanese historically did not make use of the shield in the same way the Europeans did, shields are not part of the game, nor are they there to create a nice, clean AC progression. Rather, R&R allows players to cobble together various armor pieces where a full set of O-yori armor is AC -1.

If this principle were applied to European armor, then several aesthetic and mechanical things could be accomplished:

• It allows players to be more whimsical in their character conception through armor
• It has more potential for respresenting historic armor types from a wider range of time and place.
• It allows the shield to be something other than an AC modifier
• It conceptually makes more sense with a Weapon vs. AC table than the traditional "+shield" AC progression.
• It suggests a simple encumbrance rule where AC (modified by STR or DEX) x10 = movement (I must admit, I am borrowing this from something I read in the blogosphere, but I cannot remember who was the originator).
• It can make helmets mechanically important.

At the moment, I am approaching this from an abstract pov, so as to make it as flexible as possible. If the body is divided into three parts (head, torso, lower body) and armor divided into three types (light, medium, heavy) this creates the potential for an AC progression of 9 (no armor) to 0 (heavy armor for all three body parts) where Heavy = -3, Medium = -2 and Light = -1.

In addition, the torso and lower body can be divided into parts. Each part can have different styles of armor. Add up the different parts, divide by the number of parts (rounding down) in order to get the AC. For example, a retiarius gladiator is often depicted wearing heavy armor on one arm, but none on either the chest or other arm. Thus -3 +0 +0 = 3; 3/3 = 1. In addition, they are often depicted with a heavy armor helm. Thus, the final AC would be 5.

Movement rate = ACx10. This can be modified by the STR bonus. Thus, AC 0 with a 13 STR would allow a movement of 10 ft. If the character is wearing nothing but light armor, the STR bonus can be substituted for the DEX bonus.

I must admit that I am thinking of using this set-up in context of the 1 hit = 1 hp experiment I came up with over the weekend. Therefore, the following are directly related to that concept; however, with a little fiddling I can see them applicable to a variable damage system as well.

• Shields can negate one attack per round; however, the character using the shield cannot attack the creature whose attack was blocked that round.
• Two-handed weapons do +1 damage (x1.5 in variable?)
• Wielding two weapons affords a +1 to hit (allow the character to add their DEX bonus to hit?)

I would also consider making the latter two only available to fighters.

Happy St. Cuthbert Day

May the Feast of St. Cuthbert bring many blessings...

Chainmail Revisited (Weapon vs. AC Reborn?)

A recent post over at A Paladin in Citadel has got me thinking about Chainmail (and thus Weapon vs. AC tables) again. I very much like the system proposed, due to its marvelous simplicity; however, it suffers from the same problem that I ran into in my own attempts to implement a Chainmail-esque combat system. Unlike the alternate d20 system that subsequently became the norm, hit points never outpace damage per round in Chainmail combat. A 9HD creature has the potential to kill 9HD worth of opponents per round. This leads to short, deadly and (most importantly) boring combat.

This did not stop me from re-reading my LBBs with Chainmail in mind, however. As a result I ran into a very interesting tid-bit:

All attacks which score hits do 1-6 points damage unless otherwise noted.

On its own, this is not earth-shattering; however, this appears as part of the Alternate Combat System. This got me thinking — what if variable damage was not used if the Chainmail combat rules were in place? Rather than doing d6 hp damage per hit, everyone (unless noted — more on that later) would simply do 1 hp damage per hit.

Without having play tested this idea, there are some immediate consequences that come to mind:

• On average I would expect combat to last a little longer.
• Tactics would prove vital — figuring out how to focus attacks on a single target (and getting the right type of weapon vs. armor to increase the chance for a hit with a Weapon vs. AC table) would be key.
• Morale would play a much greater role in combat (and might actually help keep combats short).
• Creatures such as Ogres, Giants and Dragons would be truly terrifying, because they are capable of doing variable damage per hit.
• Having a +1 damage on anything would be a huge bonus.
• And most importantly, hit points outpace damage beginning at first level. Combat is still deadly, but no one is going to die from a single hit unless they have 1 hp (or are stupid enough to take on an Ogre, Giant or Dragon).

My obsession with finding a workable Weapon vs. Armor table may very well have found a second life...

Saintly Saturday: Sts. Chrysanthus and Daria

Today is the feast of Sts. Chrysanthos and Daria the Martyrs. Chrysanthos was the son of a senator of Alexandria in Egypt. When he became a Christian, this upset his pagan father who had Chrysanthos thrown in jail, hoping that his son would change his disposition. When it became obvious that his plan wasn't going to work, the father summoned a beautiful, educated and pagan woman from Athens — Daria. She was wedded to Chrysanthos in the hopes that through his love for her, Chrysanthos would abandon his faith. This plan also backfired. Through her husband, Daria also became a Christian. They were martyred in 283 when they were buried in what is nicely called "mire," but I'm guessing that a more scientific description might include the word feces.

Recently Beedo of Dreams in the Lich House posted the results of some of his polls. Among these was the question "Do you use love in your D&D games?" Of note, Random harlot chart, page 192 1E DMG garnered the most votes (I guess if D&D players were in charge, Chrysanthus would have disappeared into history instead of being remembered as a saint). Personally, this has been an aspect of the game I was never much interested in, nor very comfortable with. In Beedo's poll, I voted for We explore dungeons, not characters because, in terms of relationships, I have always been much more entertained by the camaraderie between PCs and the development of henchmen NPCs.

This is where I must begin my however. My current group of players is interested in these kinds of things, though they fall more into the second-most voted for category in Beedo's poll: Characters have gotten married. In our play, no one has gotten married, but given an opportunity (retirement, end-game, etc.) I am fairly certain such an event will happen. Unwittingly, I have also forced the issue a little bit by requiring all Clerics to make their decision to be either married or celibate prior to ordination (so far, surprisingly, celibacy has been the favored choice).

One of my favorite consequences of marriage is children. This is an aspect of the game I have never had the opportunity to explore, but have always wanted to. In my mind it is an indication of long-term play with lots of end-game maneuvering. Thus, when children do show up, I plan on using this method to determine stats:

For each characteristic roll a d8:
1 Use the Mother's stat -1 (minimum 3)
2 Use the Mother's stat
3 Use the Mother's stat +1 (up to racial max)
4 Use the Father's stat -1 (minimum 3)
5 Use the Father's stat
6 Use the Father's stat +1 (up to racial max)
7 Use the average of the Mother's and Father's stat (round up)
8 Roll 3d6

While We Are Re-imagining Monsters...

This is an homage to Greg Bell's literal interpretation of a bugbear:

Why do bugbears have a surprise of 3 in 6? Because they have eight eyes, of course!

Meditating on Orcs

In response to James' call to create a buzz about orcs across the old school blogosphere, let me begin with my absolute favorite depiction of "orcs" in print or film:

Yep, those are the "goons" from Disney's Sleeping Beauty. I don't know what it is, but whenever I watch this classic with my kids, every time I see these guys run across the screen, I am transported back to my very first experiences with D&D and my attempts at making heads or tails out of the Holmes edition. In short, these guys make me want to play. I can't say that about pig-faced orcs, green-faced orks that cry "Waaagh!" or (especially) Pete Jackson's full body-suit orcs.

The inspiring thing about the Sleeping Beauty orcs is their deliciously deviant diversity. Yes, the guys are kinda cute, but there is a dangerousness about them that I just can't get enough of.

In terms of D&D, my own version of orcs are distinct from the goblinoid races and are a byproduct of a world where magic interacts with sin. There are several ways that orcs can be produced:

• They can be manufactured by either evil magic-users, powerful half-orc champions or any other number of likely candidates for general of an orc army.
• There is an evil that wanders across my world called the Blight Demon. It feeds off of negative emotions — anger, greed, gluttony, etc. One of the byproducts of a "feeding" is the creation of Blight Spawn. These include such oddities as owlbears, perytons and orcs. The Blight Demon allows the sin of its victims to become physically manifest. This is one of the reasons for the wide diversity among orcs.
• Finally, through repeated debauchery and heinous behavior, people can slowly transform over time into orcs.

In other words, these are true monsters.

Saintly Saturday: St. Theophanes the Confessor

St. Theophanes the Confessor was an 8th-9th century monk who had once been married and been an imperial bodyguard. He died on the island of Samothrace. The title Confessor is given to saints who are imprisoned, tortured and/or sent into exile for the faith but are not martyred. St. Theophanes earned this title because he was exiled to Samothrace by the emperor Leo the Armenian.

The issue that caused this exile might seem trivial and strange — icons.

St. Theophanes was one of the defenders of the use of iconography by the Church. Leo the Armenian was an iconoclast (literally, a breaker of the icons). It is kind of amazing to think that a piece of wood with a painting on it could cause a bloody conflict that would last from 730 to 843.

The reason that iconoclasm became such a large controversy was because it became an issue over the nature of Christ. The iconoclasts not only argued that icons were idols and therefore banned according to the 10 commandments, but that mere wood and paint were not worthy of depicting the beauty, holiness and glory of Christ and His saints.

The iconodules (literally, lovers of icons) argued that if creation, in the form of wood and paint, were evil enough that they were incapable of depicting Christ and His saints, then it follows that iconoclasm calls into question the incarnation of Christ. By refusing the ability of Christians to depict the reality of God Incarnate who walked the earth, interacted with His creation, ate, drank and was touched, heard, and seen because wood and paint are not worthy of His image, they imply that the humanity — which is as much part of creation as wood and paint — is also not worthy of being united with Christ. If we cannot depict Christ, we cannot definitively defend the incarnation.

The first Sunday of Lent in the Orthodox Church is the celebration of the return of the icons to the Churches. On this day the Gospel Reading is from the end of the first chapter of John. The last verse (51) is actually a difficult thing to translate. Usually, it is translated thusly:

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Here is a more literal translation:

Truly, truly I say to you: you will see heaven — the one that has opened — and the angels of God — the ones ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

Note the subtle difference in tense. Nathaniel cannot see what already is, but with faith he will. For Orthodox Christians, icons are one of the means by which we see what already is.

***

Miracle Working Icons

These items appear to be normal paintings on wood varying in size from about an inch a side to a couple of feet a side; however, when used in prayer to ask the saint depicted for intercession, the icons will reveal their miraculous nature. There are several types, roll a d12:

1-3 Myrrh flowing. These icons will produce a flow of myrrh. When used to anoint the wounded, this myrrh will function in the same manner as a staff of healing.
4-6 Protection. These icons produce the effect of a Protection from Evil 10r. spell.
7-9 Healing. Once per day, these icons can produce the effect of a Cure Disease spell.
10-11 Prophesying. These icons will prophesy for the faithful. Once per day they can be asked a yes or no question with the same results as if an Augury spell had been cast.
12 Spell Casting. These icons will allow the user to cast Cleric spells. These spells are determined randomly: 1d3 spells per day. Each spell will be of 1d3 levels.

Mining Some Circa 1981 Gold

. . .many fantasy gamers see nothing wrong with a game-universe ruled by evil forces, or by a callous "Neutrality" barely distinguishable from evil, but let anyone suggest having an omnipotent good power, and they'll scream, "Blasphemy! That spoils GAME BALANCE!!!!

Is it my thesis that a D&D Campaign can assume the existence of an omnipotent God — in fact, the God of the Bible — without losing the quality of suspense, just as, in reality, the existence of that same God does not make life predictable or unchallenging on our "Prime Material Plane."

For those of you who follow this blog, you might mistake the above quote for something that I had written from one of my earlier posts; however, you would be mistaken. Rather, it is from an article that ze bulette of Dungeons and Digressions brought to my attention from the Oct/Nov 1981 issue of Judges Guild's Pegasus Magazine — Monotheism In Fantasy Games by Joseph R. Ravitts.

From my perspective, it is a fascinating piece of gaming history because it indicates that the seeds that eventually drove me away from playing D&D for many a year were already planted and bearing fruit in 1981. The fact that Ravitts is having to make many of the same arguments that I have in this blog (that monotheism is not only a legitimate choice in FRPGs, but is well supported by fantasy literature) demonstrates a trend within the hobby that may very well have contributed to that dark and ridiculous association of D&D with Satanism by the likes of Pulling, Schoebelen and Hickman. However, I think the most interesting aspect of this article (and what distinguishes it from my own writing) is that Ravitts feels the need to spend a lot of time arguing for a fantasy world where Jesus Christ is not one of many active deities.

Over the course of the last three decades, hobbyists have come to agree with Ravitts; however, the majority chose to rid their games of Christianity rather than pagan gods. Which, of course, is where I come in. I have endeavored to demonstrably find ways in which to go the other direction and play this game with a very strong Christian foundation. A foundation that was, at least in part, present in the early years of the hobby as evidenced by Ravitt's need to argue that Jesus Christ cannot coexist with the likes of Odin, Crom, Set, Cthulhu or Krishna as active deities that directly influence fantasy worlds through granting spells to clerics etc.

Here are (from my perspective) some of Ravitt's more instructive observations:

Jesus Christ had to warn His followers, "In this world you will have tribulation." Sam Gamgee, in The Return of the King had a vision of "light and high beauty forever beyond (Sauron's) reach," but this did not relieve him of the responsibility to fight against the immediate threat to his world.

Others will object that the stern moral authority of the Christian God puts too many limits on a character's freedom. But have you considered the restrictiveness of other cosmologies? The Eastern religions view man as the prisoner of Karma; in Greek mythology, gods and men were subject to Fate, and often brought on a predestined doom in the very act of trying to avoid it; and in Norse mythology, everything that a hero achieved or enjoyed was overshadowed by the inevitability of Ragnarok. The Judeo-Christian view, in contrast, dignifies mankind by asserting the our will is truly free, and our free choice is crucial to our eternal destiny (Genesis 4:7, Deuteronmy 30:11-14, Joshua 24:15, Matthew 23:37, James 1:13-14).

However, the true gem to be found in this article from the annuls of our hobby is Ravitt's description of his own campaign world. Citing the fact that C.S. Lewis had Aslan/Christ supply Narnia with human beings from earth rather than creating a whole separate human race, he imagines his own version of Middle-Earth where two or three hundred years after the fall of Sauron, God arranges for Christians from our world to be transplanted to Middle-Earth to preach the Gospel to the beings that inhabit it.

While I would not choose Middle-Earth myself, this approach has a tremendous amount of appeal. It plugs into a deep seeded trope within Pulp Sci Fi and offers a fabulous way to introduce all kinds of sci fi elements, as Ravitts himself points out:

Subsequent crossovers from our Earth brought in the English language — and whatever other elements of the real world I wanted to have appear in my game-world. (That's how you can get anachronistic items in your dungeon without spoiling the internal logic!)

This has caused me to have a very bad case of Gamer ADD because this has put an extremely cool twist on my proposed version of Greyhawk. Rather than use one of my Aslan-esque Christ analogues, I could actually use Christianity with the understanding that St. Cuthbert is one of those Christians brought from our world to preach the Gospel to the World of Greyhawk. Thus, whenever someone says, "That is St. Cuthbert's Church" it is understood that it is the place where you go to worship St. Cuthbert's God — Jesus Christ. It also gives me the freedom to introduce some of the more gonzo elements of the early hobby with impunity.

If you have access to Pegasus IV, I recommend reading Monotheism In Fantasy Games, if for nothing else than a fascinating look at the early years of the hobby.

Saintly Saturday: Conan the Gardener!

Well, not really; however the name is close enough (Konon/Κόνων) that I just couldn't resist.

St. Konon the Gardener was a simple man from Nazareth who lived in the reign of emperor Decius. He is known as the Gardener because of the one he tended in the region of Pamphylia. He was so kind hearted that he greeted the soldiers who had come to arrest him with all his heart. When told that the governor wanted to see him, he replied:

What does the governor need of me, since I am a Christian? Let him call those who think the way he does and have the same religion with him.

He was martyred when he refused to sacrifice to the idols.

***

The Spade of St. Konon

This appears to be a normal soldier's spade and may be used as either a digging tool or a weapon; however, its miraculous character does not become apparent until someone with a STR of 8 or less attempts to use it to turn the earth. For every negative STR penalty that the character has using the spade, it will produce enough food to feed one person for one day (STR 3 = 3 people; 4-5= 2 people 6-8 = 1 person). This power is usable once per day.

Meditating on Tolkien

Recently, James posed one of his Friday Questions on envy. He was specifically interested in game systems and the communities that exist around them. Upon serious reflection, I am not that much envious of any group of gamers (indeed, via the blogosphere I get to be apart of a very special group of people). Rather, I grew up envious of those who had a love for J.R.R. Tolkien and his works.

Growing up, I was one of those slow readers who just didn't comprehend what I was reading until well into 3rd or 4th grade. By that time, I was already playing D&D. Since I wasn't able to understand what I was reading, I gave my Holmes edition to my best friend to read and he taught me. The main influence in his understanding of fantasy was Tolkien. By the time we started to play on a regular basis, he had read the whole of the Lord of the Rings three or four times. His efforts on world-building focused on a Middle-Earth-inspired continent he called Karafax (if I remember correctly) where the Dwarvish Oakenshield clan played a large role.

When reading finally became accessible to me, I found Tolkien beyond me. This frustrated me, exacerbated by disappointment. My grandfather died shortly before D&D entered into my life. The one thing that was bequeathed to me after his death was his boxed copy of Tolkien works. I was assured that my grandfather adored Middle Earth and everything about it. Unable to read it, and having parents who were uninterested in fantasy (at best) meant that I would be denied any kind of pleasure from Tolkien (and thus remembering my grandfather in one of the few things I knew about him) for decades.

Thus, I unconsciously rejected Tolkien as a source for my own world-building efforts and concentrated rather on obscure works of Sword & Sorcery in the hopes of finding something as special and as inspiring. As an aside, my own current group had an interesting conversation about demi-humans and our like/dislike for them. Elves are surprisingy despised and gnomes are very popular. I had to admit my own bias towards half-orcs, which stems from my affection for Garth the Overman from Lawrence Watt-Evans' The Seven Altars of Dûsarra. D&D has no overmen, but half-orcs have always proved to be a good substitute.

Recently, however, I have been re-examining my own relationship with Mr. Tolkien and his writing. Part of this has been doing something for my kids that I was denied when I was their age: everyday after school we sit together and I read aloud a little bit of The Hobbit. I have been pleasantly surprised how good it is, and am reminded by how large it looms in my own imagining of what D&D looks like.

I also recently ran across this series on modern fantasy and its relationship with Tolkien. I particularly found this quote of interest:

Tolkien himself was often moved by scenes he wrote displaying his characters’ “physical resistance to evil,” reverently calling their actions nothing less than “a major act of loyalty to God.” This loyalty, equal parts physical and spiritual, was in turn something that he believed “only becomes a virtue when one is under pressure to desert it.” The world of The Lord of the Rings is filled with great temptations of a sort that don’t lead directly to evil per se, but that lead to the abandonment of the physical resistance — the pain, the suffering — that Tolkien considered so central to his notions of true heroism.

Given James' recent hypothesis "You are What You Read or See" I have to admit that though I tried to abandon Tolkien all those decades ago, he has had a profound influence upon me and the way I play the game. Though I have played D&D since the 70s, I have only seen three of my characters get to 7th level or beyond. Personally, I love playing low-level (and low-life) characters. I love playing the role of that nobody (even reviled outsider — read half-orc) who is nonetheless willing to physically resist evil and make a difference, no matter how small. This has always had a far more powerful pull on me than the end-game of D&D with its high levels and castle-building ever did.