Witchcraft Wednesday: The "Return" of Rhiannon and Briana Highstar

 A special Witchcraft Wednesday today. But really, aren't they all special in their own way?

Working on the final layout of my Left Hand Path book AND prepping my Weekly Forgotten Realms games with my oldest; I figure I'd do them both in one posting today.

All my Basic-era witch books have similar features. The Witch and/or Warlock classes, new Traditions, new spells, new monsters, new magic items, and new NPCs to drop into your games. I was thinking about the NPCs I have now ready to go; Babylon, Debbie "Elf Star", and her coven leader, Ms. Frost. 

But I needed one or two more. While playing last week, I figured I would start to introduce some of Grenda's NPCs to my Forgotten Realms game. That thought led right to Briana, and then that lead right to including her in the Left Hand Path book since she was already a witch of Mephistopheles. She just didn't fit, she belongs in this book. If I am going to include Briana, I might as well include Rhiannon as well.

I am using AD&D 1st Ed stats for them in my games, but will include their Diabolic Witch Basic-era Stats in my book.

So, here they are. Briana Highstar and Rhiannon. I am not sure how they interact with each other (even if they will) but I am going to have a good time finding out. 

Briana Highstar
Human Female

Witch Level 4
Diabolic Tradition
Patron: Mephistopheles
Alignment: Chaos (Lawful Evil)

STR: 12 +0
INT: 15 +1
WIS: 17 +2
DEX: 16 +2
CON: 13 +1
CHA: 17 +2 (+10% XP)

Death/Poison: 13
Petrification/Polymorph: 13
Rod, Staff, Wands, or Device: 14
Breath Weapon: 16
Spells: 15
Single Save: 15

AC: 7
HP: 19
To Hit AC 0: 20 (Descending AC)
To Hit Bonus: +0 (Ascending AC)

Weapon: Dagger
Armor: None

Occult Powers
Familiar: Cat 

Spells
First Level: Charm Person, Spirit Dart
Second Level: Burning Gaze, Grasp of the Endless War

Hair: Black
Eyes: Grey
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 136 lbs

Rhiannon
Human Female

Witch Level 8
Malefic Tradition
Patron: Ereshkigal
Alignment: Chaos (Neutral Evil)

STR: 11 +0
INT: 17 +2
WIS: 17 +2
DEX: 16 +2
CON: 15 +2
CHA: 16 +2 (+10% XP)

Death/Poison: 11
Petrification/Polymorph: 11
Rod, Staff, Wands, or Device: 12
Breath Weapon: 14
Spells: 13
Single Save: 13

AC: 5
HP: 36
To Hit AC 0: 18 (Descending AC)
To Hit Bonus: +2 (Ascending AC)

Weapon: Dagger of Venom
Armor: Leather

Occult Powers
Familiar: Mourning Dove
Minor: Impure Touch

Spells
First Level: Charm Person, Chill of Death, Touch of Suggestion
Second Level: Beastform, Disfiguring Touch, Protective Penumbra
Third Level: Bestow Curse, Bleed for Your Master
Fourth Level: Fangs of the Strix

Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 114 lbs

--

I am happy with these two. I am looking forward to seeing how they progress in the adventures and their life in my Left Hand Path Book.

I don't know yet if these two know each other. But I do know that Rhiannon knows Larina. They began in the same coven, but they went their separate ways. Rhiannon will be my excuse to do an "evil Larina" which will be kinda fun, really.

OGL Section 15: COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Character Clip Art & Color Customizing Studio Copyright 2002, Elmore Productions, Inc.; Authors Larry Elmore and Ken Whitman, Art and illustrations by Larry Elmore.

Witchcraft Wednesday: Left Hand Path work and more Moria

 The Left Hand Path is moving on a good pace, not as far as I wanted to be right now, but I can live with that. I did want to show off another bit of new art for the book.

That's how it appears in the book. I'll add the artists names when I am doing laying out. I might tweak the page a bit, but you get the right idea. 

Here is a closeup.

The artist is Bill Blue, and you can see more of his art on his site.

Last night I wrapped up the first adventure for my 1357 DR Forgotten Realms campaign. As a GMPC, Moria only gets a fraction of the XP earned, so she has not leveled up yet. My oldest bought some HeroForge minis for some of his characters. I joked with him about it asking are you sure you want to spend money on minis, the characters could be dead before they get here! He said it was fine since a couple of characters in the group are based on characters he has going in other games, so they will get use. Wonder where he got that from?

Of course, I had to make a mini of Moria and Mesphito Fleas. Shout out to Pun Isaac for sending me suggestions for her mini!

 I am not going to buy a mini of her for the same reasons I told my son not buy his minis, she might be dead before they come in the mail! Maybe I'll just buy the STL and print here at home.

Yeah, she still only had 4hp and three spells (using my Advanced rules), but Fleas did kill a goblin last night by biting it. So maybe her chances are not so bad after all. 

We started adventure C3 The Lost Islands of Castanamir last night. I decided that Castanamir was a Red Wizard of Thay, but broke away from them to continue his own esoteric research.  This is one of the adventures I got from the Grenda Collection, so it is fun to use. 

There is a room with two thieves, Doblin and Joblo (really??). Well, I misread the entry and thought those were the names of the Leprechauns. When Liam got to the room where the thieves were, I didn't have names for them. That's OK, it was Duchess & Candella to the rescue! They were looting investigating a wizard's tower in Glantri when they got pulled in here. Obviously Castanmir was seeking advice from the wizards in Glantri with help for his tower. 

I am going to certainly be bringing them back as comic relief. I said they don't really fit in the Realms, but who am I kidding? They fit everywhere!

Speaking of reoccurring characters. I am certainly going to be using Grenda's Briana Highstar as an antagonist. They are not ready to meet her yet. I know she is an enemy to "balance," but she also serves Mephistopheles. She could even start out as ally. I don't know yet. I will see how it plays out.

I already have a mini for her!

This one is labeled as "Black Robed Mage of High Sorcery" so that works great for me. She also looks she is wearing a feathered cloak of some sort. 

This will be fun!

Tuesday Mail Call: Baldur's Gate 3 Origin Characters

 I have been on the record both for my love of Baldur's Gate 3 and for my disappointment in how Wizards has mishandled the property. In a case of almost too little and almost too late comes the Baldur's Gate 3 Icons of the Realms Origin characters pack.

The minis are from WizKids, so you know what to expect here. They are not bad.

Comparing them to my Hero Forge versions, each has pros and cons.

No mini yet, that I know of, for my current obsession Mizora, but I also have not really been paying much attention.

I have to admit I really do not see me buying much of the new D&D 5.5 material. 

Witchcraft Wednesday: Introducing Moria Zami, Part 2

 Late post? Yeah, I was playing AD&D with my son until the wee hours of the morning! I have not done that in a bit. We are playing again tonight (this morning) when he gets home from work. We are going to finish up his first (playing) Forgotten Realms adventure.

Moria went over GREAT! I already love this character and I am playing her like Sabrina Morningstar (not Spellman, yes there is a difference) from the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.  Her mother is a witch, that I know, her father is a devil and a pretty powerful one, but I don't know who he is yet.

I am looking forward to finding out.

The Sabrina Spellman/Morningstar analogy is good here. Little Moria here will turn quite evil, maybe even the "Big Bad" of the series. Given who I thought the Big Bad was (Orcus), I have some ideas on who her father might be. But...I am going to hold this a little closer to my chest while I figure out how that might work out. I will say this, he is a Duke if not an Archduke. But Moria doesn't know this yet either. 

I have put a mark on certain spells on her sheet that cause her to dip a little closer to evil. She speaks infernal, and her eyes go all black. The characters know something is up with her, but the paladin of the group says she is not evil.  Liam told me I should build her in BG3, not knowing yet who she is. I told him "yeah, I oughta do that."

Since this is a one-on-one game, he is playing a lot of characters, and it is very likely that they won't all make it. I am looking forward to that as well. 

She has a familiar, a hellhound disguised as a Pug/Chihuahua mix (a "Chug?" a "Pihuahua?"). It is a lame excuse for me to finally use "Mephisto Fleas" for a familiar name.  And he is an odd looking mutt.

 

No idea if he will go full Hellhound yet. But I am sure he has it in him. In the meantime, he is just a rat-mutt. 

More Forgotten Realms: Introducing Moria Zami

 I have been out of town for a few days; it was my Father-in-law's 90th birthday. But right before we left, my oldest son and I were talking about our AD&D 2nd Ed Forgotten Realms game that he is running for me. He is having fun, but what he REALLY wants is to play. And AD&D 1st Ed at that. Yeah, he got a taste at Gary Con, and now he really wants to play AD&D more. Plus, we are both a little fed up with Wizards of the Coast, especially with their recent antics. 

Since we are both huge fans of Baldur's Gate 3, we wanted to add in some things from the video game. We have more connection to that than, say, Drizzt or Elminster. Trouble is, BG3 takes place in DR 1492, and we want our 1st ed game to take place in DR 1357, a year before the Time of Troubles. While in my 2nd ed game, I have a minor connection with Arnell Hallowleaf, but I also wanted something for this game. We are assuming that while my characters are exploring the Sword Coast, his characters will be exploring the Sea of Fallen Stars. This opens up a lot to us. But there are more than 130 years between our games and the events in BG3. So, there are not a lot of characters that are around for both times. Even Jaheira would only be about 10 years old at this point. Maybe they can rescue her and her family at some point. Set her on her path to become a Harper.

As it turns out, I have wanted to explore some of the past of the Cambion, Mizora. She is a rather entertaining character in her own right and deserves some further development. She is the servant of Zariel, but the trouble is there was no Zariel in AD&D 1st ed. Well, we are already ret-conning some details, and truthfully, I was never a fan of Tiamat as the ruler of Avernus. I might use Bel, the former ruler. I'll check Descent into Avernus for ideas later on.  But for now, I need to figure out who Mizora is, and more to the point, who is she in AD&D 1st Ed.

In BG3/5e she is a sorcerer, but this is AD&D, so I am going to make her a magic-user. I am also going to say she spent a lot of time in Avernus prior to BG3, so this is the time before that. 

I am not sure how long cambions live. I do think her mother was human, maybe even a witch. Now that would be fun.

---

A few hours later...

Ok, change of plans, sort of.

I AM sticking with Mizora, but not the Mizora he (and everyone) else knows. I am going with Mizora as a teenager. She knows there is something different about her, but she doesn't yet know what.

Moria Zami ("I am Mizora") is just a 16-year-old witch caught in the same pirate raid on the Sea of Fallen Stars that grabbed the characters. She is going to stay with them for a while. Until something bad happens. This also gives me the chance to try out some new things for my Left Hand Path book and something new I am starting later this summer.

Moria Zami
Witch 1st Level (Diabolic Tradition)
Lawful Neutral

S: 14            
I: 14             
W: 12           
D: 15           
C: 16           
Ch: 20

Paralyzation/Poison: 13
Petrification/Polymorph: 13
Rod, Staff, Wand: 14
Breath Weapon: 16
Spells: 15

HP: 5 (d4)
AC: 10
Weapon: Dagger

Occult Powers
Familiar: Dog "Mephisto Fleas"

Spells
First Level: Back Fire, Fey Sight, Sleep

So far, she is a good girl, but that is going to change.

Monstrous Mondays: FOR1 Draconomicon

For today's Monstrous Monday I want to get back into exploring the Forgotten Realms. I was exploring the early AD&D 2nd edition books when I last left off.  Next on my list is one of the classic books for the Realms; so classic that we will get 3rd, 4th, and sort of a 5th edition versions of it.  I am talking about the Draconomicon. 

FOR1 Draconomicon

1990. by Nigel Findley, et al. Softcover, 128 pages. B&W art with magenta and some full color pages. 

For this review I am considering my original softcover book and the PDF from DriveThruRPG.

Obviously named after the Necronomicon and the more in-universe Demonomicon. I grabbed this one fairly late in my gaming life to be honest. I knew about it, of course, but I never bothered to grab it until my oldest began an interest in D&D at a very young age. He had a copy of the Draconomicon for 3rd Edition that he had carried with him everywhere (he was 5). It was so beat up and abused I thought it might be nice to get him the AD&D 2nd ed one as well, so I grabbed it at the local Games Plus Games Auction a few years ago.  He loved that one too, but took better care of it!

So I suppose, this book really isn't part of *my* collection. 

In any case this book feels more like the "Complete Handbooks" and "Dungeon Master Guides" books than it does an Forgotten Realms one. Thus the "FOR" code vs. the "FR" one. And yes, while there is a lot of Realms specific lore here, it reminds me enough of the old "Ecology of..." article from Dragon to be portable to any other world, save for maybe Krynn. That world has some very specific dragon lore already.

Chapter 1: Reference

This covers some history of how dragons first came into the world. There is an interesting piece on dragon evolution from the early Eodraco to "modern" dragons. Love the supposedly "extinct" line of dragons, perfect for an enterprising DM to come up with their own. We also see the return of the taxonomic nomenclature for dragons from the the 1st Ed. Monster Manual. 

The various "main" dragon species are described in detail, including a "racial preference" table common to the time. 

There are even Draconic Gods other than Bahamut and Tiamat listed. Note Bahamut and Tiamat are not listed here, but Zorquan is. I like the notion that dragons also worship "human" gods, they just appear draconic to them. This honestly makes a lot of sense and helped pave the way for Dragonborn in my mind. 

And to come full circle there is even some information on human who worship dragons. We will see more of this in future books.

Chapter 2: Geography

As expected, this covers the area where the dragons are found, listed by dragon type. Only slightly expands on what has been seen already in the AD&D 2nd Ed Monstrous Compendium/Manual.

Chapter 3: Dragon Psychology

A little more detail here, and this feels like the old Ecology of articles more. It discusses what motivates dragons, including their hoarding behaviors, and how to deal with such a long-lived creature. 

Chapter 4: Role-Playing Dragons

This chapter flows, concept-wise, from the previous. That is, how do dragons become (or be) "Dragons." How do they deal other species, how do they learn to fly, talk, do magic, what do they eat. All of these are discussed. There is even some discussion on how to raise a dragon. 

Need to know how long a dragon needs to incubate an egg? That information is here as well. Interestingly enough it mentions that chromatic dragons can interbreed. More on that later.

This chapter is good for an DM that uses dragons in their game and either wants to them be more fleshed out as a character or wants them to be a greater threat in combat. 

Chapter 5: Dragon Hall of Fame

Here we get some unique dragons. Bahamut and Tiamat seem "demoted" here to just special unique dragons. Others mentioned are Lareth, Aurus, Nexus, and Lux to name a few, I recognize. 

Chapter 6: New Dragon Species

We have some tables on dragon interbreeding. This section also has Monstrous Compendium style sheets for you to use. They are not numbered, so I wonder if the idea was you cut them out for use? No chance of that today! I'll just print mine from the PDF. These include the Mercury Dragon (with all of page 65's text on the back side!), Dracohydra, Steel Dragon, and Yellow Dragon. 

Chapter 7: Magic

Spells and magic items. I like the idea that some of these spells are so rare that only dragons know them. 

Chapter 8: Hunter's Guide

I mean, the game is called "Dungeons AND Dragons" so hunting dragons will come up. This chapter has some good advice and role-playing tips for both sides of the DM's Screen. 

Chapter 9: Miscellaneous Information

It covers everything else not touched on in the previous chapters, including details on the in-world Draconomicon itself. There is a bit on dragons and Spelljamming too. 

Adventures

The last 30 or so pages gives us three mini-adventures. 

Dragons should be awe-inspiring, or at least terror-inspiring, in the *D&D game and this book moves us a little closer to that. 

For a book about dragons, it is great. I would have eaten this one up back in 1990, but I would have chaffed under Bahamut (and Tiamat) getting such ill-treatment.  As a Forogtten Realms book tit dosen't push my understanding of the Realms any further save for the fact that there are colleges of scholars who spend a lot of time talking about dragons, but little time actually near dragons! (maybe they are smarter!)

It does help build a world where this is some mystery. What about that extinct line of dragons? Where are they? What were they? Can I learn new spells from dragons? What treasures do they hoard?

Great way to start adventuring in the world.

Catching up with Sinéad

Since I am using my character Sinéad as my discovery point of view of the Forgotten Realms, I think it is time I check in with her and her band of adventurers. When we last left them they had run into some trouble in Waterdeep ("Ill Met in Waterdeep" a year ago!). Since then they have been wandering the lands. With this book, my son and I decided that they see a yellow dragon flying overhead, ala, Ash Ketchum and his Ho-oh Pokémon. We thought that was funny given my son's love of dragons and Pokémon growing up. 

The party consists of Sinéad, the thief Nida, the barbarian Jaromir, Rhiannon the witch (not Grenda's Rhiannon), Arnell the cleric, and Argyle the dwarf fighter. Right now I am still using their 1st Edition AD&D sheets, but I will need to update them soon. There are no real barbarians in AD&D 2nd ed, so I think when I do update, Rhiannon and Jaromir will have moved on. Too bad really, I kinda liked Rhiannon. I will have them show up again when Sinéad and company get to Rashemen. We decided that while Nida and Rhiannon get along well, Sinéad and Arnell do not. Well. Sinéad want to know everything about elves from Arnell, but he is uncomfortable talking to a worshiper of Sehanine Moonbow. I am playing him as having a crisis of faith at this point; his faith vs his attraction to Rhiannon. 

Not sure who is making the cut to AD&D 2nd Edition yet, but I better figure it out soon.

Monstrous Mondays: DMGR4 Monster Mythology (2e)

 I want to pick back up my reviews of my collection of Forgotten Realms books, I also want to keep up my exploration of various monsters that have appeared in past versions of the *D&D game. With the lack of "playable humanoids" in the current Monster Manual, I returned to my collection and found a book that fits my needs.  While this means I am skipping over a couple of books in my chronological order, they are all connected to each other, so I can justify it. 

Of note, this is another book I obtained from the Grenda collection. So that is also a good reason to feature it. It can also stand-in as an entry to my "One Man's God" series. 

DMGR4 Monster Mythology (2e)

1992, by Carl Sargent. Art by John Lakey, Laura Lakey, Keith Parkinson, Terry Dykstra. Softcover, blue&white and full color art. 128 Pages.

This book was the fourth in the DMGR, or Dungeon Master's Guide Rules, series for AD&D 2nd edition. I did not purchase many of these when they were new. At this point, most, if not all, of my gaming money went to Ravenloft-themed products. 

This book covers, not monsters really, but their gods, demigods, and heroes. The format is simialr to that of new Legends & Lore book for 2nd Edition, and it would be a prequel of sorts to various Forgotten Realms "Faiths & Avatars" books, with Demihuman Deities being its direct descendant. 

Now to be fair, Monster Mythology is not a Realms book per se. A lot of what goes on in this book will later get adopted to the Realms. Author Carl Sargent, also know for his Greyhawk From the Ashes boxed set, makes many mentions of various Greyhawk secific gods. It seems that he felt these two products would work together. And they do, quite well in fact, but the Forgotten Realms are also explicitly mentioned. 

What does this book actually have in it?

There are gods for the Elves (including sea elves), Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings, specifically for the Forgotten Realms, though we have seen these before in one form or another. There are "Goblinoid Deities" of the orcs, goblins, bugbears, kobolds, and others.  

There are the Gods of the Underdark: For Drow, Underdark Dwarves, Illithids, Beholders, Myconids, and Deep Gnomes. 

Gods for the Giants, for other monsters, and many more are also mentioned. This includes the Elder Elemental God, aka the Elder Elemental Eye. This book does nothin to clear up that confusion, but that is fine. I like my gods messy. Case in point, the Demon Lord Juiblex is listed as a Lesser God here. Indeed, one man's god is another man's demon.

In addition to Juiblex, other demons are mentioned and get deity-level treatment. This includes Demogogn, Yeenoghu, Kostchtchie, Baphomet, and Lolth (naturally). Additionally, other "monsters" get god-like treatments, such as Bahamut and Tiamat. 

Vampires, liches, and even hags get gods. Though I am not sure I'd ever use them as gods and more as "powerful examples" of each type. 

It is an interesting mix, especially rereading it with 2025 eyes. Some gods were ported over from the various Gods of the Demihumans articles from Dragon magazine, and others from previous Realms-based books and earlier as well. The Underdark gets more detail. It's no surprise; the early 1990s were all about the Underdark and Drow in particular.

All gods get mentions of their Specialty Priests. So in general, this book has more value to the game than does the Legends & Lore book proper. 

A couple of thoughts, though, of my own.

I'm not sure what happens with the gods of the Kobolds as they became less "goblin" and more "dragon."  I am likely to say that these gods were once powerful kobold heroes that fell into a sort of ancestor worship. 

I also can't see the Illithids or the Beholders having gods. For the Illithids, I say that their two gods, Ilsensine and Maanzecorian, are not real beings but rather constructs of the Illithid shared mindscape, something akin to a Tulpa. The beholders, on the other hand, have their "Great Mother," who I say is not so much a divine figure, but actually the mother of all beholders. So in a way she is more akin to Vlaakith of the Githyanki. 

The book is flexible enough to be used in any campaign setting, and it mentions just about every campaign setting from that time. 

While the book has been superseded by newer AD&D 2nd Ed books in the Forgotten Realms and by shifts in the pantheons in different editions, this is still a solid book.

The details on specialty priests alone makes it worthwhile.  

Review: The Forgotten Realms Atlas

 Last month I presented a few characters from Grenda's collection of Forgotten Realms material. It got me thinking I needed to continue my exploration of the Realms.  Among the books in his collection is the amazing The Forgotten Realms Atlas. Under normal circumstances at this point in my exploration of a new world I would go right to a publication like this. The fact that it is the next book in chronological order and it was part of my friend's collection makes it an even better choice. 

The Forgotten Realms Atlas (2e)

1990. By Karen Wynn Fonstad. Forewords by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb. 178 pages.

Before I get into this book, I have a few words about Karen Wynn Fonstad. She is not a name usually associated with the Realms, but she is a "name." Prior to this book, she had given us the equally extensive Atlas of the Dragonlance World. She came to these via her work on The Atlas of Middle-Earth, The Atlas of Pern, and the Atlas of The Land from "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant." All epic works of cartography and staples of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club during the 1980s.  All her books have a similar feel to them, and all are meticulously well-researched. She had been the Director of Cartographic Services at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh and had fallen in love with Tolkien's world back in 1975.  I don't know if she felt the same love for Toril, Krynn or Pern, but her work in all three was top-notch. She passed in 2005 at the young age of 59. She was remembered fondly in the New York Times this past January, nearly 20 years after her death.

The Atlas itself is a massive work. The book itself is 178 pages, with 3-color art. The only illustrations in the book are Fonstad's maps and there is nearly a map per page. These are not just geographical maps of places, there are maps of towns, homes, castles, even standing stones on the Moonshae islands. Everything is footnoted and cross referenced. 

It covers all the Forgotten Realms products, novels and RPG sources, up that point. So it is pretty comprehensive. 

The atlas is divided into four major sections.

Part One: Regions

This covers the large regions of the known world of the Forgotten Realms circa 1990. It includes large area maps of the Western Realms (most familiar) north and south, the Hordelands, and the Eastern Realms where Kara-Tur had been newly re-set. 

Part Two: The Moonshae Isles

This covers the Moonshaes and the places (and events) of the Darkwater Trilogy novels. I should probably read those at some point. The level of detail here is rather amazing, to be honest, and you do get the feel that this is a living, breathing world. 

Part Three: The North and West

Again, the areas most familiar even to the most casual Realms fan. Though, while I admit that now I am likely more than a casual fan, the amount of detail here is staggering to me. There is so much I don't know here. Reading it makes me feel like I have missed a lot since there are many references to the novels. I know I am never going to ever read everything Forgotten Realms, but this does make me appreciate the in-world and real-world history here.

Part Four: The Western Heartlands

This is the bulk of the book and is just packed. Here, I am further outside of the areas I know. Hell, even the areas I know I know I don't know well. But I think I am going to come back to this book very often.

Honestly. This book is a treasure. I had flipped through a copy of Fonstad's Atlas of Middle of Earth years ago and was blown away by it. I have the same feeling here. It is almost too much to take in at once.

Her References alone would be the basis of a great adventure, academically speaking, to read up on the Realms from 35 years ago. It is more than I could ever hope to read and still manage to get all my other reading in! But it also gives me ideas of other products to review, beyond what I already have. 

 

Character Creation Challenge: Corvell "Ice" Multane

Heading into the home stretch and have a stack of Forgotten Realms characters here. I am certainly going to use them in my own games in the Realms. 

"Corvell Multane" is a quintessential Grenda character name.  He comes from the same time period as does the HIVE. And much like the HIVE was influenced by my Spyder Society, this Ice seems (on the surface) to have been influenced by my "Ice" from three years prior. Was he trying to recreate some of my characters for his own game? I don't think so. I have found character sheets of some of my characters in his collection. If he wanted them in his game, he just used them. These characters are inspired by, but not the same as. 

Since I am translating these characters to the Wasted Lands, I think I am going to try to keep them as "Realms accurate" as I can. So that means classes RAW and little to no Heroic Touchstones. 

Corvell "Ice" Multane

Class: Warrior
Level: 1
Species: Human
Alignment: Light Neutral
Background: Warrior 

Abilities
Strength: 15 (+1) A
Agility: 16 (+2)
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 9 (+0)
Persona: 17 (+2) N

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 7
Degeneracy: 0*
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +1 to all Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background)

Warrior Abilities
Combat Expertise, Improved Defence, Melee Combat, Master of Battle, Ranged Combat, Supernatural Attacks (Melee), Spell Resistance, Tracking

Wow. Ok, I like that. I mean, there are no surprises here, but that is a clean-cut character and would do well in the Wasted Lands or Forgotten Realms. 

I will likely drop Degeneracy and Corruption if I continue these for the Forgotten Realms. Though, one could argue that Szass Tam is the model for both of these. 

This is going to be fun.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Character Creation Challenge: Enter the HIVE!

 I wanted to spend a week doing evil characters, but my week got away from me. I was supposed to do these yesterday. Plus I also have another reason for doing these. My oldest is building a bunch of NPC adventuring parties. In his current game these adventuring guilds are akin to the social media celebrities of his world. They are all ranked, with the ones with the highest ranks getting the best sponsorship deals and merchandising deals. Groups with signature-named weapons do better since the weapons can be sold separately for their action figures.  

The Hive here are not highly ranked. But that is fine since he needs a few of them.

I am not 100% sure about the origin of these guys, but the timing and the names of the characters remind me of my own "Spyder Society" I had made a couple years before them.  I don't think they were made to be NPCs, these look like characters he was going to play at some point. Plus a few have what look like "play notes" on them.

What REALLY stands out about these characters though is they were made for the Forgotten Realms. This is interesting because I didn't even know Grenda, a hard core Greyhawk guy, was doing anything at all with the Realms. But they all worship evil gods from the Realms. He also has his city, Rivendell (not the Tolkien one), placed in the Realms somewhere. If I use them, I'll change that to Waterdeep. Though I would have liked to have known where he put his city on Faerûn.

There is a nice variety here, but all are 1st level (or so) and all are fairly standard AD&D classes. So translating them into Wasted Lands is pretty easy.

Cobra

Class: Renegade
Level: 1
Species: Human
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Warrior

Abilities
Strength: 18 (+3) N
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 18 (+3) N 
Intelligence: 15 (+1) 
Wits: 16 (+1)
Persona: 18 (+3) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 10
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Thug

Gear
Longsword, dagger, crossbow

Widow

Class: Renegade
Level: 1
Species: Dökkálfar
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Warrior

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 17 (+2) N 
Intelligence: 18 (+3) N
Wits: 15 (+1)
Persona: 16 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 3
Vitality: 6
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: 1 Level of Sorcerer

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Trickster

Gear
Longsword, dagger, dart

Pi

Class: Renegade/Necromancer
Level: 1/1
Species: Half-Ljósálfar
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 16 (+2)  
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 17 (+2) N
Persona: 15 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 7
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Necromancer Abilities
Channel the Dead, See Dead people, Turn Undead, Protection from the Dead

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Psychic Power: Telekinesis 

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Speaker to the Dead

Gear
Shortsword, mace, dagger

Wasp

Class: Renegade/Sorcerer
Level: 3/3
Species: Deep Gnome
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 16 (+2)  
Intelligence: 17 (+2) A
Wits: 16 (+2) N
Persona: 15 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 4
Vitality: 13
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6), Vital Strike

Sorcerer Abilities
Spell casting, Aracna (Enhanced Senses, Psychic Power Suggestion)

Sorcerer Spells
First Level: Chill Ray, Extinguish Light
Second Level: Invisibility

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Psychic Power: Bio-feedback 
3rd Level: Luck Benefit

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Trickster

Gear
Shortsword, mace, dagger

Cottonmouth

Class: Renegade/Necromancer
Level: 1/1
Species: Half-orc
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 17 (+2)  
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 17 (+2) N
Persona: 10 (+0) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 8
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Necromancer Abilities
Channel the Dead, See Dead people, Turn Undead, Protection from the Dead

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Assassin

Gear
Bastardsword, morningstar, dagger

"The Shadow"

No idea who this is. "He" appears to be their boss or handler.  His name appears on all their sheets under Patron. It is likely that one of his own characters relocated to the Realms.

I must admit. I am tempted to reuse these characters for my own Forgotten Realms expropriations. A great set of antagonists for my Sinéad.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

The R. Michael Grenda Collection - Forgotten Realms

 I am still working through this large collection from my old DM and high school/college friend when I discovered something rather unexpected. Mixed in with all his stuff was a busted Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box.

I am quite excited for this.

First, I had no idea he was into the Forgotten Realms at all. His game back in the day was 100% solid Greyhawk. In fact it was so famously Greyhawk that this is where my whole Mystoerth game world comes from.

Secondly, I have needed an empty Forgotten Realms box for a while!

I have all these articles from Dragon Magazine written by Ed Greenwood and others about the Forgotten Realms, and I have had them spread out amongst all my other boxed sets. Now, I can gather them all up and put them into this empty box. These all come from my coverage of "This Old Dragon."

I am still looking for all the articles I have. I know my copy of "Down to Earth Divinity" somewhere. 

This was among some other random and partial items that are not overtly part of the Realms. Things like a partial of A3 and some damaged copies of D1-2 and D3. I might also throw those in and figure out how to make them part of the Realms. Could I place Erelhei-Cinlu in the Realms? Could I edit the adventures to jive with Menzoberranzan?  No idea yet, but I will have a good time figuring it out.

I still have a stack of material here I have gone through. So who knows what other treasures are here to discover.

Review: Forgotten Realms Adventures

While I have been flirting with AD&D 2nd Ed and Realms for the last few months, it is time to dive in head first with the combination that defined Dungeons & Dragons for many in the early 90s. While I was away playing in the gothic-horror land of Ravenloft, most of the AD&D 2nd Edition fanbase was playing on Faerûn and in the Forgotten Realms, and this book was their entry point.

Forgotten Realms Adventures

1990. By Jeff Grubb and E Greenwood, cover art by Clyde Caldwell. Interior art by Stephen Fabian. Interior paintings by Clyde Caldwell, Ned Dameron, Jeff Easley, and Larry Elmore. Cartography by Dave "Diesel" LaForce. 148 pages.

This is a guide book not just to the Forgotten Realms but very specifically to the Forgotten Realms post "Time of Troubles" and to the AD&D 2nd Edition game. I want to delve into the Time of Troubles and discuss it not just in the Universe but how it was a very clever way to bridge the editions and rule changes.  However, I am not really qualified to do it any justice. I have not read the novels involved nor have I played the games, either tabletop or video games. But I can talk about what this book says, post Time of Troubles.

Before I get to the book proper, I want to discuss its position in terms of the "Adventures" hardcovers.

TSR's three main campaign worlds at the end of the 1980s were Dragonlance, Greyhawk, and Forgotten Realms. All got a special hardcover treatment that very much spanned the gap between 1st and 2nd Editions of AD&D.

Dragonlance featured ideas unique Krynn that would become part of the AD&D 2nd edition rules. The Greyhawk book was a hybrid of 1st and 2nd Ed rules, and finally the Forgotten Realms was solidly AD&D 2nd Edition with plenty of conversion notes for the very recently published Forgotten Realms boxed set.  A lot of what is in this book is both updates to the new rules and updates to the world post Time of Troubles. Elegant no? 

Reading this book now and knowing the directions both the Realms and AD&D/D&D were going to take, it seems that many of the rules for AD&D 2nd Ed were made to suit the Realms and vice versa. 

So what is in this book?

Chapter 1: The Forgotten Realms Post Avatar

This section is not large, but it packs a punch. In its dozen+ pages, we get the changes to the Realms Post-Avatar and adapting your game to the new AD&D 2nd Edition rules. Changes in character classes are covered, like what to do about those Cavaliers, Barbarians, and Assassins that no longer exist in the new rules. Psionics no longer exists (for now) and anyone who tells you they did are obviously mistaken. While AD&D 2nd Ed strongly adheres to a 20-level character maximum, there are plenty of NPCs that do not. So there are spell advancements for wizards and priests to 30th level. 

One of the newest additions are Magic-dead and Wild-magic zones. The Forgotten Realms always had more magic than either Dragonlance or Greyhawk, so these are a fun addition. 

Firearms are covered by the AD&D 2nd Ed rules, too, since they exist in the Forgotten Realms. 

Chapter 2: Gods and their Specialty Priests

Reading this, I can't tell you if specialty priests were created for AD&D 2nd and adapted well to the Realms or if they were created with the Realms in mind. In any case, we get all the (then) current Gods in their then-current forms and their specialty priests.  This is about two dozen pages and you can get a good feel on what the Time of Troubles was all about; at least this part of it.

Also as someone played a lot of clerics over the years this is a great set of examples of how to do the AD&D specialty priests. This also features the first instance I know of depicting the garb of the various priests together. 

Chapter 3: Magic and Mages of the Realms

Not to be under-represented, the various changes to magic are covered here along with what the Realms, or at least Ed Greenwood, is well known for; lots and lots of new spells. Honestly even if you never play in the Realms these two chapters are worth the price of the book alone. 

Chapter 4: Cities of the Heartlands

This covers the major cities of the heartland of the Realms, covering the West to East expanse of the continent. The cities are presented in alphabetical order. The material is similar to what we have seen before, updated for the post Time of Troubles and new rules.  Still I never get tires about reading about these cities and looking at the maps. Yes, I spent a lot of time looking over the map of Baldur's Gate after spending so much time there. 

Chapter 5: Secret Societies of the Heartlands

Covers the "Big Three," The Harpers, The Zhentarim, and The Red Wizards of Thay. I found the section on the Zhentarim to be better than what I have read so far. 

Chapter 6: Treasure

This covers special and unique treasures of the Realms. While it does feel like padding, it is still useful information.

We end with some Appendices; Treasure Tables, Wizard Spells by School and by Level, and Random Spell Lists. 

The most useful section, even if woefully out of date, is the published Forgotten Realms bibliography. At least to March 1990. If I was serious about reading about the Time of Troubles, then I would have my reading list right here. I am a little surprised about how much of this list I have read. I may know more than I am giving myself credit for. 

The book has the feel of all the books from this time. With the Clyde Caldwell cover and Stephen Fabian art, one could be excused into thinking this was a Ravenloft book (next month...) but the Elmore and Easley art quickly dismisses this notion. 

There is not enough in this book to really run or play in the Realms. You should have the boxed campaign set, but there is enough to provide adventure seeds. The book, though, holds more promise than crunch, and that is a good thing for me at this point in my exploration of the Realms. With these books, I could imagine taking a trip along the roads, moving east from the west to visit all these great cities and all the adventures in between. Finding strange sigils from other adventurers, Harpers, or even the Black Network. Sounds like a great adventure trek for Sinéad, Arnell, Rhiannon, and Nida. Especially since I last left them while talking about cities. I'll update their characters to AD&D 2nd Edition rules later on. This also reminds me that I want to have Nida end up in Ravenloft. Why? I have my reasons.

This book isn't why so many people associate the Realms so strongly with 2nd Edition AD&D, but it is the place to start.

#RPGaDay2024 Compelling Characters

What makes for a Compelling character? What makes one for me and say not for you?

I'll talk about an NPC on the 22nd, so today I'll feature PCs.  As it turns out, I also just got some new art for a couple of my PCs Sinéad and Larina from artist Mondhut.

Sinéad Moonshadow

Larina Nix

I should think that these two don't really need introductions at this point. But briefly, Larina is my witch character I stat up in every game I play to see if I can make a witch in that game.  Sinéad is a sorcerer/bard that I am currently using in my exploration of the Forgotten Realms. Sinéad was also the character I used when I did my "perfect" run of Baldur's Gate.

What I had not realized until I started this post is that at no point in my histories of these character have they ever met.

Larina has had dealings with all my major characters over the years, being a near immortal witch will do that. Sinéad has interacted with Taryn, Larina's daughter, quite a bit. In fact when Sinéad was trapped in the Feywild she and Taryn met and decided that they must be sisters (both are half-elves). 

But Sinéad and Larina have never actually met.

They are compelling, to me, because I keep finding ways to use them. I also have my Johan character and he is every bit as compelling, but he is 100% a PC, so a lot of what happens to him (all the Johans) is largely due to the game he is in at the time. Larina and Sinéad bonuce a lot now as PCs, NPCs, and GMPCs. 

Check out Mondhut's Instagram if you can.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 RPG with well-supported campaigns

 This one is pretty easy. Probably the best supported campaign setting anywhere is the Forgotten Realms for Dungeons & Dragons.

There are plenty of well-supported campaigns, but few have spanned multiple editions of their game, even through rule changes.

Sure, there is the "Arkham" setting of Call of Cthulhu and whatever the setting is for World of Darkness. But those are largely "our world, but different." The D&D settings take on a bit more work, and few have done this as well as the Realms have. 

Not to mention the support of novels, board games, movies, and video games. It's all rather impressive, really. 

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDay2024 Most recently played

 Most recent played?

That would have to be my AD&D 2nd Edition one set in the Forgotten Realms with my oldest.  We play a little here and there when he gets off of work (usually around 11:00pm to midnight).

We have not gotten very far. An hour or two here and there, but we have had a blast doing it.

This is the one where I am running my Sinéad as a DMPC. She is a Bard, so she is always just a support character, and she is the DM mouthpiece on Realms lore. It has been great since I remembered how much fun I always had with Bards.

I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

Mail Call: D&D History and Adventures

 It's Tuesday, and that means mail around here. It also means UPS, which delivers late in my neighborhood. It is also the release date of Wizards of the Coast's new 50th anniversary book.

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons, 1970-1977 is a really great book. I can't wait to get into it more.

Original Character sheet.

I also spent some cash on a bunch of AD&D 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms adventures and sourcebooks.

I'll get to each one in turn. Looking forward to using these in my AD&D 2nd Ed game. This will be a lot of fun.