The dragonborn, as a player character race, is typically looked upon with scorn throughout the OSR. It's not a traditional fantasy race and has little if any precedent in the literature the game derives its roots from. I remember my first exposure to a "dragon-man" PC race was in the "Council of Wyrms" campaign setting, which included an optional half-dragon PC race. I own the box set but never had the chance to run it (though that may be a future M74 conversion, who knows), but even reading through it I found the half-dragon concept to be a bit silly and contrived, even in the midst of a campaign setting where players could literally play as dragons.
Regardless of all that, Type-IV D&D includes, in its first Player's Handbook, the Dragonborn as a PC race. The history of the implied setting is filled with references to an ancient Dragonborn Empire called Arkhosia. Even the venerable Forgotten Realms campaign setting managed to find a way to write these Dragonborn into its most recent iteration.
I'm not a huge fan of the Dragonborn by any stretch of the imagination, but my kids think they're awesome. Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon board games each came with a Dragonborn hero to play, so I have a couple miniatures, one wizard and one fighter.
Aside from their draconic appearance, their iconic ability is a breath weapon of some sort. Type IV D&D offers the following options: acid, cold, fire, lightning and poison. This must be selected at character creation and cannot be changed.
I want to avoid any of the once-per-encounter silliness that is part-and-parcel of the Type-IV experience. The way to do this well with Microlite seems to lie with the spending of hit points to use such an ability. I would have to equate this ability to at least a second-level wizard spell.
Dragonborn get +2 to STR. Experience base modifier of +7. Special Abilities: at character generation, choose fire, ice, or lightning as your breath weapon. Fire can strike up to four creatures in a small group within 30 feet for 1d8+level fire damage. Ice can strike up to four creatures within 15 feet of you for 1d8+level cold damage. Lightning can strike up to four creatures in a straight line from you within 30 feet, for 1d8+level lightning damage. Use of this ability requires a ranged attack roll vs AC and costs 3 Hit Points. Dragonborn also recieve a +4 bonus to saving throws against damage/attacks that are similar to their breath weapon type.
New-School Rules, Old-School Style
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Eladrin for Microlite74
Eladrin, as introduced in Type IV D&D, are elves with stronger ties to the Feywild than "normal" elves. They are more akin to the "High Elves" typical in fantasy literature, while Type IV's Elf race falls more towards the "Wood Elves" or something of that nature.
What sets Eladrin apart in Type IV is their "Fey Step" ability, which is basically a short-range teleportation ability. This is fairly easy to port to Microlite, and I present my mod below.
Eladrin get +1 to DEX and +1 to CHA. Experience Base modifier of +7. Special Abilities: Can use elf-made magic armor and magic weapons even as a magic-user or illusionist. Note secret/hidden doors (D20+Mind bonus; DC 12 if carefully checking, DC 16 if just passing through); spend 2 HP to teleport instantly to a location you can see within 50 feet; speak languages of elves and other fey creatures.
What sets Eladrin apart in Type IV is their "Fey Step" ability, which is basically a short-range teleportation ability. This is fairly easy to port to Microlite, and I present my mod below.
Eladrin get +1 to DEX and +1 to CHA. Experience Base modifier of +7. Special Abilities: Can use elf-made magic armor and magic weapons even as a magic-user or illusionist. Note secret/hidden doors (D20+Mind bonus; DC 12 if carefully checking, DC 16 if just passing through); spend 2 HP to teleport instantly to a location you can see within 50 feet; speak languages of elves and other fey creatures.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Kids' Campaign: Werebear Tracking
Kids' Campaign: Night Below Begins
This past Thursday, the wife and I took the minions out to my in-laws' for a night of D&D, their first full session exploring in Haranshire. They met a few of the local personalities: Tauster the Wizard, Garyld and Kuiper the Rangers, and Oleanne the Druid. Also, Tauster's missing apprentice, Jenna, is generally who the party is searching for.
Basically, this session, they went out to Kuiper's farm, to meet up with him and attempt to track down Jenna, the missing apprentice wizard. They met Kuiper, and soon after met Oleanne the Druid, who hadn't seen Jenna but was more worried about a certain werebear.
They tracked the werebear for a while, and made camp for the night. They were attacked by orcs, and dealt with ten of them inside of four rounds, including charming one whom they later interrogated.
I kind of decided on the fly that since our heroes are mostly level three at this point, there's no real big reason to adventure around Haranshire just to level up. If they decide to solve some of the problems around town, good on them, but I gave them the Underdark hook when they questioned the charmed orc, hook line and sinker, revealing that there is a passage that goes "below" and that "dark dwarves" come up to take the people they've been kidnapping.
So that doesn't bode well for the poor wizard's apprentice Jenna.
Oh, and they found the werebear and our clever young wizard subdued it very quickly with a well-placed "web" spell. Next they'll go back into town and more than likely make plans to assault the orcs. All-in-all, a very good night.
I continue to be impressed with how easily Microlite works with AD&D. The AC conversion is a snap, and everything else just works. It's pretty awesome.
This past Thursday, the wife and I took the minions out to my in-laws' for a night of D&D, their first full session exploring in Haranshire. They met a few of the local personalities: Tauster the Wizard, Garyld and Kuiper the Rangers, and Oleanne the Druid. Also, Tauster's missing apprentice, Jenna, is generally who the party is searching for.
Basically, this session, they went out to Kuiper's farm, to meet up with him and attempt to track down Jenna, the missing apprentice wizard. They met Kuiper, and soon after met Oleanne the Druid, who hadn't seen Jenna but was more worried about a certain werebear.
They tracked the werebear for a while, and made camp for the night. They were attacked by orcs, and dealt with ten of them inside of four rounds, including charming one whom they later interrogated.
I kind of decided on the fly that since our heroes are mostly level three at this point, there's no real big reason to adventure around Haranshire just to level up. If they decide to solve some of the problems around town, good on them, but I gave them the Underdark hook when they questioned the charmed orc, hook line and sinker, revealing that there is a passage that goes "below" and that "dark dwarves" come up to take the people they've been kidnapping.
So that doesn't bode well for the poor wizard's apprentice Jenna.
Oh, and they found the werebear and our clever young wizard subdued it very quickly with a well-placed "web" spell. Next they'll go back into town and more than likely make plans to assault the orcs. All-in-all, a very good night.
I continue to be impressed with how easily Microlite works with AD&D. The AC conversion is a snap, and everything else just works. It's pretty awesome.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Kids' Campaign: Decisions, Decisions...
The Kids' Campaign continues apace. We gathered on the Thursday before Christmas at my in-laws' for early Christmas presents, bread-baking, dinner, and managed to sneak a little time in for some D&D.
When last we left them, they were about to have dinner with Valthrun, the town wizard. He had promised my son's character, Mike the Wizard, that he would teach him some new spells if he proved himself. Defeating Kalarel was proof enough, and Valthrun taught the young wizard a number of new spells, including a couple of second-level spells that the newly third-level wizard could use.
I also made up a small stack of cards that had different rumors and quests. Each player drew one, so they had plenty of different options to go investigate. A few of the rumors would lead directly to specific old-school adventure modules, particularly Keep on the Borderlands, Palace of the Silver Princess, and Night Below (without saying as much, of course!). The others were tied to places that were fleshed out recently by WotC in their Nentir Vale supplement and Dragon e-magazine.
You can download the quest cards here if you want. It's a PDF file, nine cards on a single sheet of 8.5x11 paper. I print them on cardstock so they're easier to handle, and if you cut them out, they fit perfectly in a regular-size plastic playing card sleeve.
They chose the Night Below route.
I would have liked to run the older modules, but I have always wanted a chance to run Night Below. It's huge and sprawling and requires a lot more than mindless hack n slash to succeed or even survive. There is a lot going on in it and I'm looking forward to all the homework I'll have to do to get it right.
On Christmas evening, they started on their way. Haranshire lay on the other side of the Cairngorn Peaks from Winterhaven, which meant they had to cross the mountains somehow. I gave them the choice of three paths. A northern route, rumored to be home to trolls and other big nasties; a southern route, guarded by an orc tribe who demanded hefty tribute of anyone passing through; and a possible third way underneath the mountains, if they wanted to search for it.
They chose the northern pass. They bought horses and other supplies and headed out. Most of the days were uneventful, until the third day as they neared the top of the pass, when they encountered two trolls fighting each other. The ever-regenerating trolls had been bashing each other's skulls in for god-knows-how-long, and the party managed (barely) to avoid notice and left the trolls to their rumbling.
They had one night-time encounter with a few giant spiders, but a well-placed sleep spell knocked them out easily.
And after six mostly uneventful days of travel, they arrived in Haranshire. They found the old wizard Tauster, who was quite distraught over his missing apprentice, Jenna. They spent the night in town and headed up the river to meet Kuiper, one of the local rangers, and that's where we left off.
We'll be heading out to my in-laws' this evening for the next session.
When last we left them, they were about to have dinner with Valthrun, the town wizard. He had promised my son's character, Mike the Wizard, that he would teach him some new spells if he proved himself. Defeating Kalarel was proof enough, and Valthrun taught the young wizard a number of new spells, including a couple of second-level spells that the newly third-level wizard could use.
I also made up a small stack of cards that had different rumors and quests. Each player drew one, so they had plenty of different options to go investigate. A few of the rumors would lead directly to specific old-school adventure modules, particularly Keep on the Borderlands, Palace of the Silver Princess, and Night Below (without saying as much, of course!). The others were tied to places that were fleshed out recently by WotC in their Nentir Vale supplement and Dragon e-magazine.
You can download the quest cards here if you want. It's a PDF file, nine cards on a single sheet of 8.5x11 paper. I print them on cardstock so they're easier to handle, and if you cut them out, they fit perfectly in a regular-size plastic playing card sleeve.
They chose the Night Below route.
I would have liked to run the older modules, but I have always wanted a chance to run Night Below. It's huge and sprawling and requires a lot more than mindless hack n slash to succeed or even survive. There is a lot going on in it and I'm looking forward to all the homework I'll have to do to get it right.
On Christmas evening, they started on their way. Haranshire lay on the other side of the Cairngorn Peaks from Winterhaven, which meant they had to cross the mountains somehow. I gave them the choice of three paths. A northern route, rumored to be home to trolls and other big nasties; a southern route, guarded by an orc tribe who demanded hefty tribute of anyone passing through; and a possible third way underneath the mountains, if they wanted to search for it.
They chose the northern pass. They bought horses and other supplies and headed out. Most of the days were uneventful, until the third day as they neared the top of the pass, when they encountered two trolls fighting each other. The ever-regenerating trolls had been bashing each other's skulls in for god-knows-how-long, and the party managed (barely) to avoid notice and left the trolls to their rumbling.
They had one night-time encounter with a few giant spiders, but a well-placed sleep spell knocked them out easily.
And after six mostly uneventful days of travel, they arrived in Haranshire. They found the old wizard Tauster, who was quite distraught over his missing apprentice, Jenna. They spent the night in town and headed up the river to meet Kuiper, one of the local rangers, and that's where we left off.
We'll be heading out to my in-laws' this evening for the next session.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
First Impressions of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
I have the greatest wife in the world. As proof, I offer exhibit Z: she got us the newest Legend of Zelda game, Skyward Sword, for Christmas. That's right, while everyone else is obsessing over this "Skyrim" stuff, I'm going old-school and working my way through yet another amazing Legend of Zelda experience. We've been taking turns playing it. I've only gotten through the first dungeon so far, but I humble offer up my first impressions of the game.
Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.
Argh, why the hell isn't Link left-handed? Like every other Link? Ever! The motion-control wii-mote interface is pretty cool, really. Link swings his sword the way you swing your wii-mote. It works really well. The nunchuck accessory serves as your shield. However, Link in this game is right-handed, and there is no option to make him left-handed. As a lefty, who naturally holds the wii-mote in my left hand and the nunchuck in my right, this makes for a clumsy experience. The sword-swings just don't seem to work the way they ought to if I'm holding the devices in the wrong hands. So I have been forced to play right-handed, as weird as it feels. A couple thoughts on this. First of all, they really should have included some kind of option for playing the game using the Classic Controller. It could have been done if they really wanted to. And they should have given the player the option to be right or left handed. As every other lefty knows, we are part of a persecuted minority. Everything around us is designed for the majority of people in the world who are right-handed. Undoubtedly, one of the reasons I identified so much with Link in these games is that he, like me, is left-handed. Having a lefty Link is a big reason I prefer the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess over the Wii version (if you don't know, go here).
Now that I'm done bitching, on to the good stuff.
First of all, Nintendo stole my "Islands in the Sky" campaign setting. It's okay, Nintendo, I won't sue. Yet. Flying around on your giant bird is pretty fun, and the controls work really well. In fact, all the controls in the game work work pretty darn well (if you're right-handed). There are a lot of different places to explore, and a lot of areas to work through down on the "surface", where the dungeons are.
The sword-and-shield-play aspect of the game is particularly fun, and is a pretty big departure from previous Zelda titles in terms of gameplay. The direction in which you attack with your sword, and the timing of a shield-bash, are quite often key to defeating monsters. Monsters carrying swords will parry your blows. Other monsters have weak spots that must be attacked in a certain direction.
This game includes a companion for Link, this time in the form of Fi, the guardian spirit of the Goddess Sword, which Link pulls from a stone early in the game. Fi is very much a Data or Spock-like character, constantly deducing logical conclusions based on evidence as you uncover it in-game (although, really only the obvious things, she doesn't really help you with the puzzles, thank goodness).
So far, it's a very solid addition to the Legend of Zelda franchise. Like I said, I have yet to get very far, but I'll be slowly working my way through it over the next month or three.
Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.
Argh, why the hell isn't Link left-handed? Like every other Link? Ever! The motion-control wii-mote interface is pretty cool, really. Link swings his sword the way you swing your wii-mote. It works really well. The nunchuck accessory serves as your shield. However, Link in this game is right-handed, and there is no option to make him left-handed. As a lefty, who naturally holds the wii-mote in my left hand and the nunchuck in my right, this makes for a clumsy experience. The sword-swings just don't seem to work the way they ought to if I'm holding the devices in the wrong hands. So I have been forced to play right-handed, as weird as it feels. A couple thoughts on this. First of all, they really should have included some kind of option for playing the game using the Classic Controller. It could have been done if they really wanted to. And they should have given the player the option to be right or left handed. As every other lefty knows, we are part of a persecuted minority. Everything around us is designed for the majority of people in the world who are right-handed. Undoubtedly, one of the reasons I identified so much with Link in these games is that he, like me, is left-handed. Having a lefty Link is a big reason I prefer the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess over the Wii version (if you don't know, go here).
Now that I'm done bitching, on to the good stuff.
First of all, Nintendo stole my "Islands in the Sky" campaign setting. It's okay, Nintendo, I won't sue. Yet. Flying around on your giant bird is pretty fun, and the controls work really well. In fact, all the controls in the game work work pretty darn well (if you're right-handed). There are a lot of different places to explore, and a lot of areas to work through down on the "surface", where the dungeons are.
The sword-and-shield-play aspect of the game is particularly fun, and is a pretty big departure from previous Zelda titles in terms of gameplay. The direction in which you attack with your sword, and the timing of a shield-bash, are quite often key to defeating monsters. Monsters carrying swords will parry your blows. Other monsters have weak spots that must be attacked in a certain direction.
This game includes a companion for Link, this time in the form of Fi, the guardian spirit of the Goddess Sword, which Link pulls from a stone early in the game. Fi is very much a Data or Spock-like character, constantly deducing logical conclusions based on evidence as you uncover it in-game (although, really only the obvious things, she doesn't really help you with the puzzles, thank goodness).
So far, it's a very solid addition to the Legend of Zelda franchise. Like I said, I have yet to get very far, but I'll be slowly working my way through it over the next month or three.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Old-School IOS App?
I want some Old-School D&D apps for my iPhone. Is that so wrong? I do a lot of blog postings and other assorted D&D-type work on my iPhone, because, well, it just works well for me.
Reading most PDFs, however, does not work very well. It's not awful, and I'm sure it's a lot nicer on an iPad or Kindle Fire, but I've got this little smart phone.
There are apps for searching the Type-IV D&D Compendium, and for the Pathfinder and D&D 3.5 System Reference Documents. While these do have certain, limited uses for me, what I really would like to see (and would happily pay, say, ten bucks or so for) is OSRIC, or Swords & Wizardry, or LotFP, or any other of the other retroclones, in an easily accessible, searchable app. Specifically, Monsters, Spells, Magic Items and such.
A constantly updating compilation of the countless numerous random charts that get published on all these old-school blogs would be easily worth another ten bucks.
Maybe this niche is too small, but it seems to me if its good enough for the modern publications of the game, surely there is enough DIY know-how floating around in the OSR to put together a few decent apps that we can use. Anyone up to the task? Or is there an app out there I'm missing?
Note: I wrote this article last night and then, like magic, found an app called Old-School DM. Its main function is combat tracker, dice roller, and monster manual. It's being regularly updated. I've yet to use it at the table, but once I do I'll have a proper review up here.
Reading most PDFs, however, does not work very well. It's not awful, and I'm sure it's a lot nicer on an iPad or Kindle Fire, but I've got this little smart phone.
There are apps for searching the Type-IV D&D Compendium, and for the Pathfinder and D&D 3.5 System Reference Documents. While these do have certain, limited uses for me, what I really would like to see (and would happily pay, say, ten bucks or so for) is OSRIC, or Swords & Wizardry, or LotFP, or any other of the other retroclones, in an easily accessible, searchable app. Specifically, Monsters, Spells, Magic Items and such.
A constantly updating compilation of the countless numerous random charts that get published on all these old-school blogs would be easily worth another ten bucks.
Maybe this niche is too small, but it seems to me if its good enough for the modern publications of the game, surely there is enough DIY know-how floating around in the OSR to put together a few decent apps that we can use. Anyone up to the task? Or is there an app out there I'm missing?
Note: I wrote this article last night and then, like magic, found an app called Old-School DM. Its main function is combat tracker, dice roller, and monster manual. It's being regularly updated. I've yet to use it at the table, but once I do I'll have a proper review up here.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Happy Holidays! And Kids' Campaign: Wrapping up The Keep on the Shadowfell
I hope everyone had a great holiday, filled with plenty of gaming goodness, be it gifts or time at the table. I got a healthy serving of both. My oldest daughter saved up chore money from her grandparents to get me the Citadel Miniatures laptop Paint Station, which was one of those things I always lust after at the Fantasy Shop but would never shell out the cash for. My other daughter got me three new Reaper minis to paint. My in-laws got me a pair of Darth Vader boxers, which came in an excellent Darth Vader-shaped tin, which now houses all my gaming dice and has me itching to run some kind of Star Wars game with the kids. I know there was a Microlite20 Star Wars mod... Anyways, the in-laws also gave me a gift certificate to the Fantasy Shop as well, which, I have since learned, can be used at their up-coming bi-annual Used Gaming Auction. Hopefully, somebody will be auctioning off a lot or three of some old-school D&D materials.
A week ago, the wife and I took the minions out to their grandparents, and we wrapped up the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure. They were close to the end and had just the final two encounters to go.
I was a little worried, going in, about how the kids would handle the grisly and frightening nature of the endgame of this dungeon. Giant pools of blood, evil dude trying to open a portal to the Shadowfell, undead beasties galore... But they were troopers. Well, except the youngest one. He's six and is normally pretty resolute in understanding it's just a game, but for some reason the possibility of his elf fighter (who he has renamed twice) getting sucked into the Shadowfell was more than he could bear.
So he went with Mom to get McDonalds for lunch.
Anyway, first was the cathedral above the room with the portal. There was a cleric conducting a ritual of some sort on the altar at the far end, a few cultists helping with all the evil chanting, and a couple of big bodyguard types to deal with, and the kids made short work of all of them, although not without taking a few lumps. The wizard was still flying around thanks to the potion he had imbibed the previous encounter. Once they cleared out the cultists, they investigated the pit in the middle of the cathedral, where more weird chanting could be heard. Also, thick streams of blood were running from the altar into the pit, and there were no other doors. A torch was tossed down the pit, with vials of oil attached to it, but it was snuffed out in a larger pool of blood below. So, with grappling hooks and rope, they descended the pit into the room below.
The still-flying wizard went first.
Kalarel was not surprised, and he blasted the wizard, who failed his saving throw and lost his flying enchantment, and fell into the pool of blood. Skeletons hacked into him quickly and he was out.
The rest of the team followed quickly. The undead monsters in the room consisted of a half-dozen skeletons, a wraith the the power to raise 1d4 of those skeletons on its turn, a big zombified drake, and Kalarel, the villain himself.
Oh, and there was the Thing in the Portal, which chose a hero at random every turn to pull towards it a few squares.
With the wizard falling in the first round, this fight was an instant nail-biter. The cleric went down soon after as well. I even adopted a house-rule (on the fly) that an unconscious character who gets a crit on their fortitude save (to avoid more body-point damage) could pop up with 1 hit point. This happened twice, once with the cleric and once with the wizard, and both were quickly dropped again.
Did I mention the wraith kept bringing the skeletons back?
In the end, it was a good thing the youngest boy's elf fighter was weilding Aecris, Sir Keegan's sword, as its bonus vs undead really wound up carrying the day (even if the boy wasn't there to make his own rolls).
This was one of those battles with a ridiculous amount of critical hits. A natural 20 was rolled just about every round. The intensity of the combat was great. I think I've grokked the Microlite system pretty well at this point; I scribbled the monster stats on an index cards moments before the battle ensued.
This session further solidified Microlite as my go-to D&D game from here on out. Now, to prepare for the next session! They've gone back to Winterfell, healed their fallen comrades, and are about to have dinner with the old town hedge wizard.
A week ago, the wife and I took the minions out to their grandparents, and we wrapped up the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure. They were close to the end and had just the final two encounters to go.
I was a little worried, going in, about how the kids would handle the grisly and frightening nature of the endgame of this dungeon. Giant pools of blood, evil dude trying to open a portal to the Shadowfell, undead beasties galore... But they were troopers. Well, except the youngest one. He's six and is normally pretty resolute in understanding it's just a game, but for some reason the possibility of his elf fighter (who he has renamed twice) getting sucked into the Shadowfell was more than he could bear.
So he went with Mom to get McDonalds for lunch.
Anyway, first was the cathedral above the room with the portal. There was a cleric conducting a ritual of some sort on the altar at the far end, a few cultists helping with all the evil chanting, and a couple of big bodyguard types to deal with, and the kids made short work of all of them, although not without taking a few lumps. The wizard was still flying around thanks to the potion he had imbibed the previous encounter. Once they cleared out the cultists, they investigated the pit in the middle of the cathedral, where more weird chanting could be heard. Also, thick streams of blood were running from the altar into the pit, and there were no other doors. A torch was tossed down the pit, with vials of oil attached to it, but it was snuffed out in a larger pool of blood below. So, with grappling hooks and rope, they descended the pit into the room below.
The still-flying wizard went first.
Kalarel was not surprised, and he blasted the wizard, who failed his saving throw and lost his flying enchantment, and fell into the pool of blood. Skeletons hacked into him quickly and he was out.
The rest of the team followed quickly. The undead monsters in the room consisted of a half-dozen skeletons, a wraith the the power to raise 1d4 of those skeletons on its turn, a big zombified drake, and Kalarel, the villain himself.
Oh, and there was the Thing in the Portal, which chose a hero at random every turn to pull towards it a few squares.
With the wizard falling in the first round, this fight was an instant nail-biter. The cleric went down soon after as well. I even adopted a house-rule (on the fly) that an unconscious character who gets a crit on their fortitude save (to avoid more body-point damage) could pop up with 1 hit point. This happened twice, once with the cleric and once with the wizard, and both were quickly dropped again.
Did I mention the wraith kept bringing the skeletons back?
In the end, it was a good thing the youngest boy's elf fighter was weilding Aecris, Sir Keegan's sword, as its bonus vs undead really wound up carrying the day (even if the boy wasn't there to make his own rolls).
This was one of those battles with a ridiculous amount of critical hits. A natural 20 was rolled just about every round. The intensity of the combat was great. I think I've grokked the Microlite system pretty well at this point; I scribbled the monster stats on an index cards moments before the battle ensued.
This session further solidified Microlite as my go-to D&D game from here on out. Now, to prepare for the next session! They've gone back to Winterfell, healed their fallen comrades, and are about to have dinner with the old town hedge wizard.
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