GAZ 3: The Principalities of Glantri

One of my all time favorite books in the GAZ series and maybe even the entire Basic D&D line is out today at DnDClassics.com.

GAZ 3 The Principalities of Glantri.
http://www.dndclassics.com/product/16975/GAZ3-The-Principalities-of-Glantri-%28Basic%29?affiliate_id=10748

Even today I go back to this book.  I loved Glantri and made it "my" country for years.  The School of Magic, the Necromancers, the Witches and more.  Just a treasure trove of great stuff.

I recently picked up a "new" copy of the dead tree version, but having the PDF will be great.

D20 Dark Ages: D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

I have been following d20 Dark Ages for quite a while now.  To celebrate 40 years of D&D Stelios is hosting a blog hop in February and I am joining in!

http://d20darkages.blogspot.com/p/d-40th-anniversary-blog-hop-challenge.html

I think it is going to be a lot of fun to do AND to read what everyone else has to say.  In truth you can pick over the last few years of my blog here and find my answers to most of these.  But getting them all into once theme and place will be nice.

So go to his blog, sign up and start working on your posts!

d20 Dark Ages: D&D Blog Challenge

Stelios V. Perdios  over at d20 Dark Ages is going to be hosting a D&D themed blog challenge for February.

It is worth checking out.
http://d20darkages.blogspot.com/2014/01/d-40th-anniversary-blogging-challenge.html

Tentative list

I am going to be on board of course.  I love things like this.  I am also looking forward to seeing what everyone else does as well.

We get some grief in the old OSR for being nostalgia soaked.  Some of that grief is actually warranted. But this is a big anniversary moment in the age of this hobby of ours and a little self reflection is fun and appropriate.

Now if I can only remember everything I did!

Celebrating 40 Years of D&D (or 35)

So here we are 2014.

So far it is cold (-6 outside as I write this).  But it is also something of a banner year. It is the 40th Anniversary of the Dungeons and Dragons game.  The original D&D game, the one hand assembled by Gary and family came out in 1974, but exactly when did it do that?

Well Jon Peterson over at Playing at the World has some pretty good ideas.
http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2013/12/when-dungeons-dragons-turns-40.html

With some pains taking research and the skill of an archaeologist he has unearthed a number of artifacts from the time between June 1973 and July 1975 to narrow down the exact date.

I did not start playing then.  My start was a little later. Again, hard to pin it down exactly but I have always said December of 1979.  That is the first time I read over the Monster Manual and played a game of D&D during recess consisting of the MM and a bad 7th generation Xerox of Holmes.  I would not get my own copy of the rules till later, but it is the Dec. 79 date that sticks with me.

We have quite a lot to look forward to really.  D&D 5th edition will be out this summer.  You can now go to your FLGS (and many Barnes & Nobles) and buy pretty much any edition of D&D you want.  DNDClassics.com has gobs of PDFs. Plus there are still plenty of retro-clones, near-clones, what-if clones, Castles & Crusades and Pathfinder.

I am sure there will be plenty of reflections on D&D over the next year leading up to Gen Con; we are a nostalgia soaked bunch really.  But that is fine. Spending some time reflecting on where we were is not a bad thing. As long as we keep moving forward too.

New Poll

I have set up a new poll, the first of a few.  I want to get a better idea what games everyone is playing.

This first pool is a simple D&D Editions one.  Your choices are:

*D&D (B, 1, 2) or Retro-Clone (Original up to 2nd Ed, all clones fit here.)
D&D 3.x/Pathfinder
D&D 4
D&D 5/Next

You may choose multiple choices. Even that gives me some information.
You can expand on your choices here if you like.  I am not interested at the moment in what you are *not* playing, but what you are playing.

The *D&D/Retro-Clone category is huge. Yes. But I am going to split that one out later.

So have it!  Tell me what you are playing.

AS&SH and Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts: Plays Well With Others

I often buy games together. Recently my two purchases were Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts. While not explicitly designed for each other, they share a common DNA in terms of Basic D&D via the d20 SRD.

AS&SH has a number of new classes, in particular magic-using  ones.  MT&DP is nothing but new classes and spells. AS&SH is a grittier, almost primitive, experience. MT&DP is straight up Basic/Expert/LL with spells that go up to level 10.   So where does the commonalty lie?

Ok take the MT&DP classes and limit them to 12 levels only.  Typically not an issue. And in some cases also reduce the spells to just 6th level.  Use the Magician as the base class. As far as the powers each class gets, well I would deal with them on a class by class basis.  Maybe give them some of the spells as powers.

Let's take the classes in detail.

Cleric and Wizard 
These classes are pretty much the standard archetypes, use the classes in AS&SH instead and swap out spells as desired.

Elven Swordmage and Elven Warder
These classes can't be used, no elves, but you could make a Swordmage or Warder and split their Casting Ability and Fighting Ability evenly.

Enchanter
Similar to the other Sub-classes"

Fleshcrafter 
This class has so much potential in AS&SH.  Given the horror elements in the game (and even the mythos elements) this classes takes on a more malevolent tone.

Healer
A subclass of the cleric. I would reduce the fighting ability, so "0" for levels 1, 2, 3; "1" for 4, 5, 6 and so on for a maximum of of 4.

Inquisitor, Merchant Prince, Unseen
I think these guys would work a little like the warlocks.  The warlock is a bit of a fighter and mage, so these classes are all a bit like thieves and mages.

Necromancer
AS&SH has a necromancer. Just use these spells.

Pact-Bound
This is closer to the concept of the Warlock

Theurge
These guys are neat ideas.  They are close to what would be a cultist in AS&SH. Spellcasters learning from long lost liturgical texts.

So a lot of really good choices.   Honestly there plenty of class choices in AS&SH already, but these can give your game an interesting twist.  Plus they feel right together.

Links

• Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts
• Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Across The Sea of Years

A dual stated adventure across Time and Space for.... well that is what I don't know yet.

I have always toyed with the idea of running a game at a con, say like Gen Con where I have multiple days, where it is the same group of characters, or their reincarnations or their children, across time and different systems.   My systems of choice would be Unisystem and some flavor of D&D.  Likely Basic.

I have done similar ideas in Season of the Witch, where I took in ideas from different games to get a different feel.  Generation HEX was conceived as using a different system each game, but that never worked out.

This idea though is two plan a game that takes place in the past, present and maybe future.  Each game is seperate unto itself, but builds a bigger story.

One idea I had was a adventure named "Synchronicity" where characters from Ghosts of Albion meet up with their counterparts from Buffy.  But that is only one, albeit long, game. Plus the system for Ghosts and Buffy is the same.

Another game I have played before is Blight for Ghosts of Albion.  It takes place in 1847 and is an unofficial sequel to my Dark Druid for Buffy (that takes place in an alternate 2001). There is a third adventure in the mix, All Souls Night, which was always designed to go with my Eire game.
I would retool Blight just a bit.  But the Dark Druid is designed for new characters, so the big bad introduced is not all that big and bad.  It works though if I run them in something like a past life regression.

The other idea I had was an adventure around the rise and fall of Elizabeth Bathory.
D&D for when she was alive and you have to stop her (though to be 100% fair, an adventure like that screams LotFP), Ghosts of Albion when she is prowling the streets of Victorian London, and something else (Call of Cthulhu maybe) for later.

I have also over the years toyed with the idea of Doctor Who, Star Frontiers, and Alternity (yeah I have been thinking about this one for a while) for the future.  I think the idea came to me when I wanted to run a hunt Jack the Ripper and I thought back to the old Star Trek episode "A Wolf in the Fold" and to the movie "Time After Time".  Jack the Ripper is still an interesting idea. A time traveling serial killer/entity could make a fun opponent.

Lots of ideas really, but nothing has really jelled yet for me.  Once I have the right story idea and roll for the characters then the system will be easier to decide on.

Anyone done anything like this before?  What did you do and what did you use?

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 19: Favorite Monster (Elemental/Plant)

Day 19: Favorite Monster (Elemental/Plant)

The classifications here show a really strong 3.x bias.  Elementals orplants never really impressed me much.  But I do rather like Effrit. I talked about them a bit in April with my A to Z of demons.  I touched on them under Iblis and Jann.  Though this is really a cheat since I treat them like a type of demon.  Truthfully if I were rebuilding the D&D cosmos I'd make all the elementals closer to demons.  At least very, very chaotic.

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 16: Favorite Monster (Aberration)

Day 16: Favorite Monster (Aberration)

The 3rd edition of the D&D game describes an Aberration as "(a creature that) has a bizarre anatomy, strange abilities, an alien mindset, or any combination of the three."
Given that my favorite are the Mind Flayers or Illithids.
I loved their weird alien looks and quasi-Lovecraftian origins.

Back when 3.0 was just getting going I wanted to resurrect an idea I came up with back in college.  I wanted to run a campaign based around the idea that the Illithids and the Vampires have joined forces to blot out the sun.  Again, based on something I had read in Dragon.  In this world all the humanoids joined forces to defeat this threat.   I still might have to do this one some day.
Eventually I figure that the vampires will betray the illithids, cause that is just the way things happen.

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 15: Favorite Monster (Undead)

Day 15: Favorite Monster (Undead)

Again this one should really be no surprise to anyone here.  While I like all types of undead there is only one that is my favorite; Vampires.

A little known fact, my interests in D&D and in horror was originally all about vampires. So before I was "the Witch guy" I was "the Vampire guy".

While the game had some great ideas in the games and books, some of the best material for the game came from Dragon Magazine.  I still have my print copy of Best of Vol. 2 with the Varieties of Vampires and issue 126 with various Silver Age ideas on how to play vampires.

I think that was the one of the things that makes me, despite my age and when I started playing, puts me more in the mind set of the Silver Age gamer.  I liked it when vampires stopped being just monsters and became a fully realized NPC type.  You can see this in how vampires were stated out:
Palace of the Vampire Queen: No name, just stats in her encounter area.
Vault of the Drow: Has a name, Belgos, a picture, and even a girlfriend.
Ravenloft: Strahd gets a name, a writeup even before the adventure starts and motivation.
He got more detail in his one shot than most gods or demons got before this.

In 3e I liked the templates on paper but when it came to stating out a new vamp it was a pain in the ass.

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 14: Favorite NPC

Day 14: Favorite NPC

My favorite NPC has to be Omar, the celebrated Dwarf merchant of Crazy Omar's.
I loved the idea of this supposedly crazy dwarf walking around his warehouse/shop wearing silk pajamas, singing in dwarven opera and wearing a fez (before fezs were cool).
Omar though is best in very small doses.  Too much and he becomes a cartoon character or at worst an ex dues machina for my players to get the exact thing they need.
Still though, after all these years he is still fun to play.  I just wish I knew some good Dwarven Opera to sing!

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 13: Favorite Trap/Puzzle

Day 13: Favorite Trap/Puzzle

I love making my players think so there are a lot of these I love.  But mostly I enjoy the riddles or word-play.  I don't need "Save or Die" poisonous darts, but a puzzle or a maze between where you are and where you need to be?  That stuff is golden in my book.  Combining the two (mazes and word play) is a great way to baffle my players.

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 12: Favorite Dungeon Type/Location

Day 12: Favorite Dungeon Type/Location

I love cities.  From the shops, to the homes, to the back alleys and the sewers Cities are always the best dungeon crawls as far as I am concerned.  Plus there are so many ways for the characters to get into trouble and so many new things they have to do.  They can't kill that merchant in broad daylight or even carry weapons!

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 8: Favorite Character I Have Played

Day 8: Favorite Character I Have Played

So many really. My favorite goes against my normal type. Nigel Blade aka Death Blade was a dual classed fighter/assassin in AD&D. I have played him in other games as well, notably Gama World and StarFrontiers.
I have also enjoyed playing my regular witch character Larina.

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 7: Favorite Edition

Day 7: Favorite Edition

How does one choose this?
I really have enjoyed all editions of D&D.  Basic was my first, Advanced my most played, 3rd the most flexible in terms of how to play...

I guess in the end I will say AD&D 1.  I played it the most, I have some great old and new memories of just having a blast.  And it is still one that ignites those fires of imagination in me.

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 6: Favorite Deity

Day 6: Favorite Deity

Tough one really.  As a kid I loved Hecate for obvious reasons. Her picture in the Deities & Demigods did nothing to dissuade me from my opinion either.

But it was Dragon #88 and Len Lakofka's Gods of the Suel Empire that introduced me to Wee Jas.
First I love that "Wee Jas" was a play on Ouija.  She was like Hecate, only more D&D.  I was a then (And still am to some degree) a fan of the Suel.  They nuked themselves out of existance, but very soon in our games "Suel" became our Shang-ri-la.
I liked Wee Jas because she was a witch goddess and a goddess of magic.  She was also a lawful goddess that hated demons and chaotic undead.  Since I also liked to play wizards and  Lawful Good clerics and paladins that hated undead and demons, she was the perfect intersection of all my interests.

Typically when I use her now she is a cross between Hecate and a little bit of Cardea.
 

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 5: Favorite Set of dice/individual die

Day 5: Favorite Set of dice/individual die

Unlike many players it seems I am not superstitious about dice.  My current favorite is the ones that I have at the table, 'cause anytime I am rolling dice is a good day.

I do have a few that have special meaning to me.  I have a blue d20 the my oldest son gave me and a steampunk d6 my youngest gave me.  They are favorites cause of who gave them to me.
I also have a clock-face d12 that use for Doctor Who (replacing the 2d6).

My kids' favorite is the d20 of mine that I got mad at and tossed behind our books cases.  They laugh cause it always seemed to roll 1s and no one will ever seeing again until those bookcases are torn out.

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 4: Favorite Game World

Day 4: Favorite Game World

Mine is a tie.  My first and nearest to my heart was "The Known World" later called Mystara. But I quickly adopted Greyhawk.  So when I ran games it was Mystara, but playing it was Greyhawk.  Around 1986 or so my then DM and I decided to merge our worlds.  We called "Oerth 3", not very original I know.
Many years later I discovered this map by Chatdemon based on an idea by James Mishler.  It was exactly what I was trying to do.  Plus this map was so much better than mine.

So my favorite game world of all time is Mystoerth!

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 3: Favorite Playable Class

Day 3: Favorite Playable Class

Well this one is no surprise.  The Witch.
I started out playing clerics and paladins which was fun.  I did indeed play the cleric like Van Helsing (all those Hammer films).  But for me the Witch was always the best of both the Cleric and the Wizard with a bit  of dark anima as well.  I wrote my first witch class close to 30 years ago and I am not tired of playing them yet!

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 2: Favorite Playable Race

Day 2: Favorite Playable Race

This one is easy, if predictable. I prefer to play humans.  I just always felt that despite all the perk the other races got, humans still got the best deal.  Plus in the days of AD&D humans were the only race that had unlimited advancement.  Also in the AD&D1 days I liked Dual Classes.  I had a number of characters that started out as one thing and then went on to be something else.  I liked the character building implications.

If I were to pick a second favorite it would be half-elf.