Licensed RPGs can either be really great or less so.
One of my favorites might sound self-serving, but it is my favorite.
I have to admit it is my favorite because everything I wanted is there somewhere. A system I love, in a time period I love and I got to work with some really great people too.
Going back to Room 19 and then to the central passageway takes the party up to a room similar to Room 20.
Inside this wet room is what appears to be a gargantuan frog. Its evil eyes though, betray its true origins.
Dæmon, Hydrodæmon
Armor Class: 2 [17]
Hit Dice: 9+36**** (76 hp)
Attacks: 2 fore claws (1d8 x2), 2 hind claws (1d4), 1 bite (1d10)
Special: Spittle, spells, only harmed by silver weapons, immunity to acid and poison, magic resistance (35%), telepathy 100 ft.
THAC0: 11 [+8]
Movement: 30' (10')
Swim: 240' (80')
Saving Throws: D8 W9 P10 B11 S12 SS 7 (9)
Morale: 10
Alignment: Neutral evil
XP: 3,607 (OSE) 2,300 (S&W) 3,800 (LL)
Number Appearing: 1d3 (1d6)
Treasure Type: I, Y
Hydrodæmon are frog-like daemons that swim the River Styx. They are the only known creatures in existence that can touch the waters of the Styx without suffering any ill effects.
Hydrodæmon are 10 feet tall and weight about 4,000 pounds. Large flaps of skin under their arms allow them to glide when leaping. The flesh of a hydrodæmon is warty and green. Its eyes are a sickly yellow in color.
Up to five times per day a hydrodæmon can expel a 20-foot long line of sputum that causes those hit to save vs. sleep (as the spell) for 6 rounds. Hydrodaemons can, at will, cast cause fear, darkness, detect magic, and dimension door. Once per day, they can summon an 8 HD water elemental.
They can communicate telepathically but have low intelligence.
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This hydrodæmon is awkward on land, and there is not enough room for it to glide. It has been trapped here since the necromancers controlled this place, and it is pissed off.
I would like to say yes to this. I'm in my 50s now. But my dad is going strong at 93 and his dad lives to his 90s. So in my 70s? Yeah. Let's do this!
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| By the way, my wife hates this picture. |
I kinda have a Larry Elmore thing going there! Besides that is about how long this will take me to get through all my games.
Taking the first exit on the left the corridor begins to rise up and out of the water. This leads to a circular room covered in slime (the ordinary kind).
There are several evil looking, but normal-sized toads in this room but nothing else.
I have a few, to be honest. Sometimes I run them as is, other times I alter them. But one of my all-time favorites has to be the original I6 Ravenloft.
I grew up on a steady stream of Universal Monsters, Hammer Horror, and Dark Shadows. That's my Appendix N. So an adventure set in pretty much the Hammer Hamlet where I get strange locals and have to fight a vampire? Yeah, that is what D&D was to me.
Ravenloft was TSR's great experiment. Take the central monster and make him a fully realized character. Seems odd to ask to do this now, but back then, that was crazy talk. Gothic Horror in Heroic Fantasy? Crazy! But it worked. Sure, Strahd can be thought of as a poor man's Dracula, but he has since become his own monster.
I know some old gamers bemoan "The Hickman Revolution," as it it called, but I loved it. Ravenloft was a literal game-changer for me. Finally, an adversary worth fighting and a REAL vampire too, not the D&D one.
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| Original, 25th Anniversary Edition, Print on Demand |
I even got my original module from 1983 signed by Tracy Hickman.
I have run this one a lot and even in other game systems. It is a lot of fun.
The corridor continues on and opens up into a larger cave that is filled with water. Some areas are 3' deep and smaller characters need to be careful.
There are three exits from this room.
Favorite game system? Well, I have two, but they are related.
NIGHT SHIFT with O.G.R.E.S. and WitchCraft with Unisystem are not just my two favorite games but also my favorite game systems to use.
Both let me play my favorite sort of game; a modern urban supernatural horror one, but they are both systems I like and have written for professionally.
NIGHT SHIFT is largely a love letter to both Old-school D&D and to WitchCraft.
I love them both.
