2nd Edition lives on!

The 2nd Edition of the World's Largest Fantasy Role-playing game is often the World's Most Forgotten Fantasy Role-Playing game.
While 1st Ed AD&D continues to get all sorts of gushy love and the border skirmishes between 3rd and 4th are still going on, 2nd Ed often gets forgotten.

But not by these guys.

PurpleWorm.org is a site dedicated to 2nd Edition AD&D.  Full of content.
http://www.purpleworm.org/content/

THAC0 Forever! Is a AD&D 2nd ed centric Blog.
http://add2e.blogspot.com/

Planet AD&D (where I used to be a contributor) is going on 12+ years of providing D&D material for readers.  It was primarily a 2nd Ed site, but now it caters to many flavors of D&D.
http://www.padnd.com/

I used to work on Planet AD&D and there is still some content there that belonged on my original The Other Side website.

I have talked about my experiences with 2nd Ed in the past, but today just reflect on what was good about this, the most dismissed of all the Editions.

Red Sonja

I was thinking after yesterday's post on Red Sonja and what system to run her in. While certainly nearly any flavor of D&D would be fine, I also think there is another very good choice. Army of Darkness. The comics have a vibe about them that has always reminded me of the Evil Dead movies. Not so much the humor, but the darkness.
Red Sonja, the comic, is now published by Dynamite, which also gives us the Army of Darkness Comic and the Army of Darkness/Xena crossovers. Given I have down all of that for Army already, then it make even more sense.

Of course given the source material it also makes sense to stat Sonja up using OD&D.  My favorite OD&D like product is Spellcraft and Swordplay by Jason Vey and using his Hyborian Age Supplement.

Red Sonja of Hyrkania (Army of Darkness)
Very Experienced Hero

Life Points 76
Drama Points 20

Attributes
Strength 6
Dexterity 5
Constitution 6
Intelligence 4
Perception 4
Willpower 5

Qualities
Promised One (Choosen of Scáthach)
Acute Senses Vision 1
Attractiveness +3
Hard to Kill 6
Fast Reaction Time
Natural Toughness (+4 to Armor)
Nerves of Steel
Resistance (cold) (she grew up on the Steppes)
Situational Awareness

Drawbacks
Adversary (lots)
Honorable (Minimal)
Humorless
Love, Tragic (various significant others and offspring)
Mental Problems (Mild Cruelty)

Skills
Acrobatics 7
Art 0
Crime 3
Doctor 2
Driving/Riding 4
Getting Medieval 9
Influence 2
Knowledge 4
Kung Fu 5
Languages 4 (varies on which comic)
Notice 5
Occultism 2
Science 0
Sports 1
Wild Card

Combat
Maneuver Bonus Base Damage Notes
Sword 14 35 Slash/stab
Punch 14 12 Bash
Dodge 14 Defense action
Parry 14 Defense action

Red Sonja of Hyrkania (Spellcraft & Swordplay)

Warrior (Fighting Woman): 8th Level
"Every great fantasy swordsman, from Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero to Tolkien's great returned King are warriors." - Spellcraft & Swordplay, p. 11

Strength: 18
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 17
Intelligence: 12
Wisdom: 11
Charisma: 18

Attacks: 7+5 (7 attacks per round, +5 to any one attack)
Hit Points: 56
Alignment: Neutral (Unaligned)
AC: 5
Sword: 1d6+3

According to Jason's rules the Hyrkanians are a horse culture. They also take a -2 to save vs any sort of mind-affecting magic, including illusions. (Save vs. Wisdom)

+2 to Con-based Saves


Red Sonja vs Red Sonja vs Red Sonya
The Red Sonja in the comics now is not the same as the Red Sonja of a few years ago.  In the current comics the woman calling herself Red Sonja is actually the reincarnation of the first Red Sonja.  The Wikipedia article gives a rough overview, but it also mentions another "Sonja". Red Sonya of Rogatino was not "the she devil with a sword" we all know and love, but rather a "gun-slinging warrior woman of Polish-Ukrainian origin" from the 16th Century.

What they had in common was coming from the same general area (Hyrkania/Ukraine), of course red hair and the temper to match.

Given the change in the comics one is tempted (and I often am) to say this is another reincarnation of the first Red Sonja (which of course is backwards since Sonya came before Sonja).  Works for me.

Given that, who is to say when the next time Red Sonja is reincarnated, and what system.

ETA: A pic of Red Sonya originally posted by Mikeyboy over at Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword.

Amazons and She-Devils

I posted a couple of new posts to two blogs I contribute too.

Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword and Amazon Princess.

Should come up with some stats for both, just have to figure a good system to do it in.
Sonja works well in nearly any system, Wonder Woman is a bit trickier.

All I want for Christmas is....

I don't know.

Last year it was easy, I wanted Doctor Who adventures in Time and Space.  This year though the must have boxed set, the D&D Starter Set, came out back in September, so I already have one.
There is nothing new for Pathfinder I want and I am not playing any other games at the moment.

I suppose the Ravenloaft Board game would be sweet to have, seeing how I didn't get it for Halloween (don't you get presents on Halloween? I do!).  Gamma World also looks fun.

What do you want Santa to bring you this year?

Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword: J. Scott Campbell Sonja

Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword: J. Scott Campbell Sonja: "J. Scott Campbell has been mentioned in this blog before, and with good reason. He does a heck of a job on Sonja. You can also visit hi..."

Blogging about Blog stuff

So I have some end-of-term things to finish today and some start-of-term things too so no real time for the post I wanted to make (on the new 4e Monster Vault).

I did however add this new LinkWithin gadget to my blog so if you are reading something here their might be a post that is similar, or as it says below "You might also like".  No idea if it will be any good or not, but I have liked seeing it and have used it on sites like Hero Press and Grantbridge Street.
I'll watch the stats and you all can also let me know.

Level Titles, Part 2

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's post on level titles.
The opinion seems to be that many like them and even use them, but only when they have utility and don't conflict with the character concept; the Necromancer title for Magic-Users the oft cited example.

Most of the level titles seem to work well enough.  The thief ones are generic enough, the fighter seems fine (with maybe the Swashbuckler being the odd one out).  Te cleric ones follow a general logical progression, maybe move bishop up one to replace "Lama" and make the old Bishop into "Abbot".

Oddly enough it seem Magic-Users are the ones that have the most problems.
Most likely it is due to the fact that many of the level title names don't seem to have ranks implied like the Cleric and Fighters do.  It is also due to that the names represent different types of magic-using types in other games and in later versions of D&D itself.  A Necromancer is a particular type of Magic-User, as is an Enchanter, Sorcerer and Witch.

This is also something that is easily fixed.

Have a quick look at my Gnomes for Basic D&D. For this I wanted something different than Gnomes as Illusionists and especially Gnomes as "Tinker Gnomes".  I went back to the research on gnomes when they were earth spirits used by alchemists and other arcane types.  So for me Gnomes did magic via alchemy.  I used a variation of the Degree Titles for Rosicrucians and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn for them.

Using this as a guide this can give us new level titles for Magic-Users that would work regardless the type of magic they are doing.

Level	Title
1	Initiate
2	Apprentice
3	Neophyte
4	Adeptus Minor
5	Adeptus Major
6	Adeptus Exemptus
7	Magician
8	Magister
9	Magus
10	Mage 10th level

I opted for "Mage" instead of "Wizard" since these are "Magic Users" and the Mage is the highest level of a magic-user.  A Wizard would be a specific type of Mage then.  To alter this for say AD&D/OSRIC then add "Adeptus Superior" to level 7 and shift the rest up (Wizards were "name" level at 10th, not 9th).

I am releasing this under the OGL and it is 100% Open Content.  Please use in your publications as you see fit.  For your Section 15 you can identify this as "Level Titles for Magic Using Classes" Copyright 2010 Timothy S. Brannan.

It is based on one of my previous publications, "Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks" Copyright 2003 Timothy S. Brannan and the Netbook of Witches Team.

I am going to put up a full OGL deceleration on my blog later.
ETA: Here it is.  OGL