D&D hits the New York Times

It's not everyday you see an article about Dungeons and Dragons in the New York Times. I can't be sure, but the game probably hasn't been mentioned in the papers since E. Gary Gygax passed away. Still, such an article bears mentioning.

Wizards of the Coast is expected to make a big announcement about plans for the next edition of our favorite past-time today. Player input into rules and an open playtest seem to be a big part of what's expected from the announcement. So basically they'll be doing what Paizo's been doing for years.

And really, it's what the folks in the OSR have been doing forever. Constantly play-testing their own rules, mixing and matching ideas from each other on how to best run the game for their own individual table. That is a huge part of what makes the game unique, and that's something WotC is going to have to understand to succeed with a new edition.

It was very nice to see a small nod to the OSR in the article, in the form of a quote from the writer of Adventurer Conquerer King, even if there was no mention of the huge community of bloggers out here who have been doing exactly what WotC is purportedly going to attempt with the new edition.

I have always felt that the splat-book drive that started with Type-II was not just TSR trying to make money off a slew of newer and newer option books. They wouldn't have pushed all that if there wasn't a large chunk of the player base consistently clamoring for more and more options for their games.

So if options are what we want, and often those options seem contradictory in nature, how will WotC square it all with the next edition? It's hard to tell. I will definitely be signing up for the playtest though, just to see the initial direction they take with it. I expect a significant departure from the Type-IV ruleset, particularly hit-point bloat and hour-long set piece combats. But they can't just publish what would amount to an "official" retroclone of the original rules. I would like to see a D&D game that takes what works well from each system and blends them into something easy to learn and easy to run, with lots of great ideas for adventure and world-building, and plenty of crunchy options that are really "optional" and fit into the game system without breaking it.

Kids' Campaign: Broken Spire Keep

Today, we gathered once again for my Kids' Campaign using the Microlite74 Extended ruleset, working our way into the Night Below boxed set module. 

This session found the heroes preparing to assault Broken Spire Keep. As they were scouting out the Keep, a small group of orcs was spotted returning to the Keep, carrying two kidnapped prisoners. (We're doing a trimmed-down version of the first book of the adventure, which basically places the Bloodskull orcs at Broken Spire)

They quickly took out the orcs and saved the hostages, both of whom smelled, literally, quite "fishy", and seemed pretty dazed. They were left with Oleanne the Druid while the party made its way across a trap-filled clearing to the front door of the Keep, wearing some of the armor and cloaks taken off the orcs.

The wizard charmed the orc at the gate, who let them in. They asked the orc to take them to where the prisoners go, which he did. That path went through the dining hall, where a number of orcs and human bandits were gathered, and a fight quickly ensued, and it didn't last long, in spite of some of the bad guys having levels in fighter or thief. 

They continued on down to the dungeon level. It took them a while to find the secret door that led to the Big Boss' chambers, and they did only after investigating the rest of the dungeon. 

The fight with the Big Boss and his zombie minions went well. The zombies all got raised once but were quickly dropped again. The Boss was down to 1 hit point when he flew away. I gave two pursuing PCs three chances to hit him with ranged weapons before he escaped. They didn't hit him. There were also a couple of dark dwarves that popped in from the connecting room, but a quick Web spell blocked their path into the room and they retreated. 

With an unconscious cleric, they barricaded themselves in the Big Boss' chambers for the night and rested. They uncovered some more of the "fishy" smelling potions, and a whole lot of gold (although they didn't get into the secret treasure room down the hall!) from the Big Boss' bedroom, and then discovered the secret door leading down into a cave system, presumably where the dark dwarves had gone. They decided to go down into the caves. 

The caves went on for miles! They encountered a group of fire beetles, which they distracted with some food and bypassed, and then a goblin tribe, which quickly surrendered after four of its number was slain in the first round. They tied the goblins up and left them there and discovered an exit to the surface, which led them back to the Thornwood. They made their way back to the Keep, wondering about Oleanne the Druid and the two rescued kidnapping victims, and set up camp. They did not find Oleanne or the rescued victims. The next day they went back into the Keep and found that the orcs had abandoned it. Very little of the treasure they had missed on their first trip through remained. 

Next time, they head back into the cave system below Haranshire. 

All in all, they got a lot accomplished for five hours of play. They are all getting better at working their way quickly through combat encounters and are seeming to enjoy more of the exploration aspect of the game. 

Boon Cards

Here is a PDF of 9 Boon cards you can hand out to your players during your D&D game. What the hell am I talking about?

Boons won't break the game. They are just little extra bonuses you can hand out to your players when they do something awesome. Say they make a hard choice based on their alignment, for example. Or get a critical hit at a critical time.Or any other awesome thing players do. Players like little rewards like these.

The boons I came up with are as follows:

Action Point: Take an extra action
Bring the Pain: +1 to damage on your next attack
Close Call: Gain 1 Experience Point (note: this is peculiar to Microlite, which uses a 1HD=1XP system; use an XP bonus appropriate to your particular system)
Dodge: +1 to AC for 1 round
Guided Strike: +1 to hit on your next attack
Second Wind: regain 1d6 Hit Points
Stroke of Luck: +1 to any roll
That Was Close: +1 to any saving throw
Try Again: reroll any die roll. You must take the second roll

I haven't tried these out yet, but I'll be testing them in my Kids' Game. I have not yet decided how often to hand them out. My original thought was that it would be something cool to hand out in lieu of treasure, when they defeated a monster that didn't have anything precious to leave behind. Especially with kids, these kinds of rewards can be a bit tricky to balance, so we will have to see.

The PDF has pretty pictures. This file is usable in MagicSetEditor but doesn't have the pictures. If you are an artist and I've used your art and you would like me to remove it, I will. Just leave me a comment or email me at sully33 at gmail dot com.

Do you have ideas for more boons? I'd prefer to have boons that are usable by any character, and not specifically tied to spellcasters or fighters or elves, etc. Leave a comment!

Microlite74 Druid Modification

My wife really liked her Type IV druid character. In particular, she liked that she could change shape into a wild beast of some sort. She preferred tiger. Needless to say, she was disappointed that this feature of the druid class wasn't available in Microlte74 until the druid reached 7th level.

So I changed it around a bit for her. I knocked the Experience Base up to 30, and changed the shapechange ability to be "once per day per level" instead of "three times per day at level 7".

We haven't playtested it much, but I don't think it'll break the game. She hasn't played with the kids at all, because she's usually trying to keep the 2-year-old from attacking all the minis on the table (poor toddler wants to play D&D SO BAD!).

More Fun with Magic Set Editor

I love using Magic Set Editor to create Magic: the Gathering type cards for use in my D&D games. My players get custom-made cards for their magical items, quests, clues, NPCs, and all kinds of other goodies.

Here is a PDF file that features the standard races and classes for Microlite74, in full-text card form, for easy reference for players at the table.

Here is a Magic Set Editor file that contains the cards in the PDF above, as well as cards for PCs (basically four cards to make up a character sheet) and three additional races that I have featured here on the blog: Tieflings, Dragonborn, and Eladrin. This file is useless without the Magic Set Editor program, which is available free at the above link.

Note: the text on these cards are pulled straight from the M74 Extended rules document. The gnome card includes my houseruled MIND attribute bonus instead of the original STR bonus. I'm making no claim to copyright or any bullshit like that. This is just an aid for your M74 Extended game.

Help!

Over at Your Dungeon Is Rock! I am compiling a couple of resources for old-school D&D gamers. One is a set of links to free, downloadable PDFs that bloggers have put together. The other is a listing of links to random charts. Obviously, this will be a constantly updating thing, as random charts are constantly being created by the blogosphere, and it seems there are more and more free PDF resources available every month.

I know I'm going to miss a lot of stuff. I know there's a lot out there that I'm not even really aware of at all. I need your help. If there is a free PDF resource out there you use that you think I ought to link to, send me an email at sully33 at gmail dot com or leave a comment here or here. Ditto for random charts.

Also, I'm not looking to compile a list of the free D&D retroclones. Tenkar has already done a great job of that.

A New Year!

Everyone else is doing it, and while I find these posts to be boring as hell, it's probably good for me to look back on the year, take stock of my progress, and figure out just where the blog is headed in the next twelve months. I already did this once when I hit 100 posts, and then after that, my posting frequency started slacking off pretty badly. We're going to avoid that this time around.

In a couple of weeks, it'll be the one-year birthday of this blog! Hard to believe how quickly the time flies, but it does. So, what can you all expect from A Pack of Gnolls (and sister blogs, ImperialRuin and YourDungeonisRock) in the coming year? More reports and tips on gaming with kids, for one. Plenty more cards from MagicSetEditor for use at your gaming tables. Lots of Microlite74 material. I may even try my hand at some adventure/setting material. Imperial Ruin will continue to explore the Nentir Vale, Microlite74-style, and YourDungeonisRock is getting rolling again, highlighting the other blogs I come across who are putting out some really good stuff.

So, here's to 2012! Here's hoping the world doesn't end.