Griffin's Rest Character Generation

I am going to start running Mord Mar at the FLGS, The Griffin's Rest next Tuesday. This post details how we will create characters. We use the Swords & Wizardry Complete rules.

Step 1: Roll Stats

Roll 3d6 (3 6-sided dice) 6 times, then assign as you see fit to the following:

Strength: This stat primarily affects combat and carrying power. Note: Only FIGHTERS gain a damage modifier from strength (this does not include rangers, or paladins.) All classes do gain the TO HIT modifier.

Dexterity: A dexterity of 13 or higher gives a +1 attack bonus to ranged MISSILE combat (this does NOT include axes, daggers or other THROWN weapons.) A dexterity of 13 or higher also gives a +1 bonus to AC. FIGHTERS with a  15 (or better) dexterity gain a Parry ability.

Constitution: A Constitution of 13 or higher gives a +1 HP per Hit Die. (So a ranger with Con 14 would get +2 HP at level 1!) Constitution also determines how likely a Resurrection Spell will work on the character.

Intelligence: This stat determines the number of languages and spells that a character may know. It also determines the highest spell level magic-users can learn, as well as their likelihood to understand a new spell found.

Wisdom: A wisdom of 15+ grants a bonus 1st level spell to clerics. Any character with a wisdom of 13+ gains a 5% bonus to all XP gained.

Charisma: A charisma of 13+ gives a 5% bonus to all XP gained. It also determines how many Specialty Hirelings the character may have. (Specialty Hirelings are NPCs that have a class, and may accompany the main character in the dungeon.)

Step 2: Choose a class.

Assassin: A specialized thief, who can use poisons. (Humans only)
Bonus starting equipment: Assassins may choose 1 of the following: 2 flasks of oil, 2 holy water, charmed garlic or wolfsbane to have in their beginning equipment.

Cleric: A warrior-priest. Clerics cast beneficial magic, and may cause undead to flee from their presence. (Dwarf, Half-Elf, and Human only)
Bonus staring equipment: 1 holy water and a silver holy symbol of the cleric's deity.

Druid: A devout follower of nature's ideals. A 2nd tier physical fighter, with a wide range of 2nd tier spells. They gain a wide array of natural abilities like determine if water is clean. (Humans only)
Bonus starting equipment: 1 scroll case and a sprig of holly.

Fighter: A pure warrior, with an understanding of all weapons and armors. (Any Race)
Bonus starting equipment: any weapon of the player's choice and 20 arrows (if applicable to the weapon)

Magic-User: A spell caster, learning the arts from tomes and knowledge. Magic-users have a wide array of utilitarian and offensive spells. Magic-users are the weakest toe-to-toe fighting class. (Elf, Half-Elf, Humans only)
Bonus starting equipment: spellbook, and 1 scroll case

Monk: Monks may not be played.

Paladin: A holy warrior, dedicated to fighting Chaos in all of its forms. They gain a myriad of abilities to help them do this, including a healing touch and increased saving throws. (Human only)
Bonus starting equipment: 2 holy water

Ranger: A warrior, with the ability to track. Rangers are rarely surprised. Eventually rangers can learn both clerical and magic user spells. (Humans only)
Bonus starting equipment: short bow and 20 arrows

Thief: Masters of stealth and cunning. Thieves can hide, find and remove traps, pick locks and climb more effectively than other people. They can also unleash a devastating "backstab" attack at appropriate times.
Bonus starting equipment: thieves' tools, small sack

Step 3: Choose a race

Dwarves: The stout, bearded subterranean dweller. These are the people that built Mord Mar. They gain a +4 to all saves vs magic. Dwarves notice changes in stonework easily. Dwarves may see in darkness 60'. Dwarves may only reach 6th level as a fighter, and 5th level as a cleric. Dwarves may begin play with both the fighter and thief classes (distributing XP equally between the classes.)

Elves: Elves, immortal pointy-eared forest dwellers, can see in the dark 60', cannot be paralyzed by ghouls, and can find secret doors easily. Elves may begin play as fighter/magic-users, or fighter/magic-user/thieves.Multi-class fighters may attain 4th level, and multi-class magic-users may attain 8th level. Elves cannot learn spells beyond 5th level. Elves cannot be raised or resurrected.

Half-elves: A cross-bread between elves and humans. They can see in darkness up to 60', have an easier time of finding secret doors. Half-elves may begin play as Fighter/Magic-Users or Fighter/Magic-User/Clerics. Half-elves may reach level 6 as fighters or magic-users, and level 4 as clerics.

Halflings: Short, friendly folk, modeled after the trademarked hobbits. Halflings gain a +1 attack bonus when using missile weapons, and a +4 to saves vs, magic. Halflings may only advance to 4th level in fighter.

Humans: Humans have no special advantages or disadvantages, except the ability to be any class.

Step 4: Gain equipment

Each character begins play with one weapon appropriate to their class, 1 set of armor appropriate to their class (excluding plate armor), 5 days of dried rations, 2 waterskins, backpack, and bedroll

Each character may choose one of the following packages:

Package 1: shovel,  5 candles, crowbar, 10' pole, hammer and 5 iron spikes, 5 torches, flint and steel, 2d10 gp

Package 2: flask of holy water, 5 pieces of parchment, 1 quill, 1 bottle of ink, flint and steel, hooded lantern, 3 flasks of oil, 1d6 gp

Package 3: block and tackle, 50' hemp rope, 5 pieces of chalk, 2 small sacks (15 lb capacity), bullseye lantern, 2 flasks of oil, flint and steel, 2d6 gp

Step 5: Determine spells

Clerics and Druids may memorize any spells of the appropriate level of their choice
Magic-Users begin with the minimum number of new spells per their intelligence. The player chooses one spell that the automatically know, and the remainder are rolled randomly (using the M-U's chance to understand.)

Step 5: Delve into the world of Mord Mar and have fun!

Monster Monday - Basilisk

Today, I continue to highlight a monster found in Rappan Athuk. There are 3 days left on Frog God's Kickstarter. I am thinking of moving Monster Monday over to the Silver Bulette blog, and focusing entirely on megadungeons here. I will make the decision in the next week or so.

In the meantime, today's Monster Monday features the basilisk. There is a section in Rappan Athuk called (gasp!) Basilisk Caverns. Wandering monsters in this area have a 50% chance of being basilisks. In the S&W version, all movement is halved, due to rough terrain. Saves must be made for moving faster, with failures meaning the character has fallen, taking 1d3 damage.

Similar to the cockatrice, the basilisk comes from mythology of Europe. (Read about it here.) They are a far mark different from what has evolved in the Dungeons and Dragons mythos, though. Here's the S&W (Complete, 3rd print, pg 100) stats:
HD: 6
AC: 4 [15]
Attacks: Bite (1d10)
Saving Throw: 11
Special: Petrifying gaze
Move: 6
Alignment: Neutrality
Challenge Level/XP: 8/800

Basilisks are great lizards whose gaze turns to stone anyone meeting its eye. (One way of resolving this: fighting without looking incurs a -4 penalty to hit.) If the basilisk's own gaze is reflected back at it, it has a 10% chance to force the basilisk into a saving throw against being turned to stone itself.

In AD&D, the basilisk has 8 legs, and its gaze reaches astral (turning the target to stone) and ethereal (simply killing the target).

Basilisks are a strange creature. There has been a lot of talk this week about dungeon ecologies (watch this video for more), and I would like to address it with the basilisk.

Basilisks are subterranean, and turn their potential meals to stone. I postulate, then, that they eat the stone. This makes basilisks a fantastic dungeon dweller. As a DM looking for visimilitude, it is unnecessary to have anything else near the basilisk's lair.

With this in mind, let's take a look at some interesting ways to use a basilisk in a game.

Basilisks pair well with almost any intelligent creature. In a lower level of Mord Mar, there are three trolls, with a trained basilisk. They keep its eyes covered unless in battle. The trolls try to maneuver the basilisk to the hallway, then remove the blindfold. The basilisk then charges whatever is moving that it can see, forcing saves against its gaze.

A pair of basilisks can be a deadly encounter, no matter the level of the characters. A mated pair of basilisks often hunt in the catacombs beneath a church. They know how to use angles to keep their prey within eyesight of at least one of them, and attack at perpendicular angles. Many adventurers have not returned after promising to rid the burial grounds of the threat.

A basilisk died in the Unholy Grounds. All creatures that die here return as undead. This undead basilisk is a ghoul, but has allied itself with several wraiths, as they seem immune to its gaze. This group terrorizes any living being that enters their floor of the dungeon.

The basilisk is not a boss monster. Its gaze attack means it is feared like one, though. When characters face a basilisk unprepared, there is often one or more casualties. Throw one (or more) at your players, and watch them squeal and run!

Artwork owned by Frog God Games, and used with permission.

Monster Monday: Stoneflower

I may get a Monster Monday out on time (nope, it's after midnight now . . .) Today's subject is the Stoneflower, from Monstrosities (page 462).

I chose the Stoneflower because I have this cool new artwork (search for Custom Art by Smitty on Facebook). It also happens to feature prominently in the module I just released on RPGNow. When I was finishing up Denizens of the Citadel, I needed a monster that could be trapped for hundreds of years, but still be alive. It also needed to be a good encounter for low level (2-4th) parties. Digging through the Swords and Wizardry monster tomes, I came across the Stoneflower, and fell in love.

It doesn't do a lot of damage (d3). It can spread attacks around (1d6 attacks per round).It has a weird magnetic effect. A perfect monster, right when I needed it. Matt Finch does great work. Sometimes weird monsters are perfect monsters. . . 

Lizard-men of Mord Mar (Monster Monday)

The lizard-men of the Swamp are a prehistoric hangover. They were the first humanoid race in the world, but not even they realize this fact. The lizard-men use an oral tradition to tell and re-tell their histories, and have never developed a written language. They are not dumb, however. Occasionally, a member of the tribe has been known to learn Common, in both oral and written form.

Lizardmen (from Swords & Wizardry)

Hit Dice: 2+1

Armor Class: 5 [14]

Attacks: 2 claws (1d3), 1 bite (1d8)

Save: 16

Special: Underwater 

Move: 6/12 (swimming)

Alignment: Usually Chaos

Challenge Level/XP: 2/30

Image found on Pintrest

The lizard-men are a very spiritual people, but they worship what mankind terms "Forbidden Gods." All known lizard-man gods are evil, and most demand blood sacrifices. These differ by the tribe's oral histories. Some sacrifices are simply "shaggy beasts," and other tribal interpretations require blood from "tusked men." Some are not at all specific, only requiring that the sacrifice is breathing. Over time, almost all human and demi-human sacrifice has been removed from lizard-man culture. Men and their ilk are simply too powerful to raid. However, a group of men stumbling into their territory is a great sacrifice.
A small sect of lizard-men worship Nobback as a god made flesh, and will sometimes attempt to lure creatures to the large alligator. The sect is all males, who keep this godling hidden from the matriarchy.
Lizard-men society is matriarchal. The males are known to be hunter-gatherers while the females tend to societal issues. These include: Oral histories, incubation of eggs, rearing young, making ceremonial instruments (headdresses, sacrificial daggers, altars, jewelry of station, etc) and making or upholding laws. Shamans are almost exclusively female.
Lizard-men near Mord Mar are blood enemies with goblins and kobolds. The dwarves of Stonemire trade swamp cow meat for dyes from the lizard-men. Occasionally, lizard-men will trade with caravans traversing through the swamps.

In the Sanctuary of Water is a separate tribe of lizard-men, that dwell exclusively underground. Their secrets will be revealed on another day.

Monster Monday: MONSTER!!!

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to travel to NTRPG Con. I was even more fortunate to have the ability to hang out with the Frog God games crew. Bill Webb was the one who originally inspired this regular feature on this blog, and he reminded me of it this past weekend.

A paraphrase from Bill: "When I use the word monster, that's what I mean. It is something dangerous, and not easy to defeat or destroy. They are a threat that common people cannot handle."

And that's the topic today: "Monster." Here's the first definition from Dictionary.com: "a legendary animal combining features of animal and human form or having the forms of various animals in combination, as a centaur, griffin, or sphinx."

This definition only scratches the surface of what we, as gamers, mean for "monster." For example, a living statue would be a monster, but not meet that definition. We need a better definition than the standard one.

I would also humbly add to the definition of monster. A monster is something that instills a fear within people that face it.

So what is a "monster?" We'll start with Bill's definition and work forward:

1. dangerous, difficult to destroy, threatening to most
2. legendary animal (or person), with combinations of features
3. instills a fear into people that see or face it.

One of my earliest Monster Monday posts had to do with goblins. Does a goblin meet the new definition of monster? Let's look:

1. individually, no, goblins do not meet this criteria. However, as a society of chaos, they absolutely could threaten a village, be difficult to destroy and have enough weapons to be dangerous.
2. subjectively speaking, goblins could meet this criteria, based on description (elfish ears, a smashed, pug-like face) 
3. adventurers nearly never fear goblins, but they could be crushed by the weight of a tribe and see true fear.

Although there are arguments for goblins being a monster, the definition or creature has to be stretched to accommodate it. Now, I will give an example of a monster from Bill's game Friday night. We found a treasure horde at the bottom of a pool of water. Investigating, we found the horde was midships on a broken galleon (or some other largish ship). We removed a seal, and were attacked by a creature that stayed in the water, and turned things it touched to ice. We knew it was undead, but our 8th level (!) cleric was unable to turn it. Working as a team, we found a way to destroy it.

The rest of the story: after it was not turned, panic set in. Those of us with high level characters refused to get in the water with it. And we never destroyed it. We found a way to immobilize it, but I'm not saying how in case you ever play in one of Bill's games.

Does this monster meet the requirements? It was definitely dangerous, difficult to destroy, and threatening. It was undead (combining features of people and the dead.) And it instilled a fear into the highest level party members: a 9th level thief, an 8th level cleric, 5th level fighters and thief, and even a 4th level paladin (or at least his player.)

Although I know the name of this monster (thanks to being friends with the DM), it's not important. We defeated (but not destroyed) a MONSTER in Mythrus Tower's wilderness environs!

Monster Monday: Green Dragons

It's another Monday and a holiday to boot. To all of the service members who lost their lives: words cannot express the gratitude that I have for your sacrifice. May your families endure well in your absence, and you drink in Valhala (or Heaven). You are not forgotten. Dad, enjoy the Great Rest.

*EDIT* After working the long weekend, I wasn't able to finish this on Monday, so Monster Tuesday today!

That said, on to the RPG stuff! There has been a challenge thrown for designing a green dragon's lair, so, green dragons are my topic this week. Dragons are an interesting dichotomy in 1e/OSR. They are the flagship monster, but "relatively" weak for their stature.

HPs are not what makes a dragon the flagship monster though. They are iconic, intelligent, and deadly. Dragons being iconic doesn't really need to be explained. If it really does, google St George, Beowulf, Dragon's Lair, Dragonslayer, or even Never Ending Story. They have been in the social consciousness for 100s of years, if not longer.

Intelligence is an attribute that I think most GMs overlook. Green dragons have an intelligence of "average to very" according to the 1e MM. Average intelligence means that they will stay out of harms way if possible, attack weak party members (aka wizards), retreat when being beaten, have escape routes, etc. Dragons should always use intelligent options when available. This makes a huge difference in difficulty.

The fear aura makes an adult dragon an awesome foe for low level (less than 6th level) party (this isn't in S&W as far as I can tell, but the contest specifies a version of D&D.) The breath weapon is what truly makes dragons dangerous. 3 x day a dragon can breathe damage equal to its HPs (save for half). In my dragon's case that's 72. That's a LOT of HP of damage. 2 salvos like that, and most parties are done, even if they make the save! And, in 1e, dragons can breathe round after round. Dragons can also choose to use three melee attacks per round: 2 claws (1d6 each) and a bite (2d10).

Now that the nuts and bolts are out of the way, let's move on to personality. For my adventure, I have been researching how green dragons should be role-played. There's not a lot on the subject for 1e, so I have room to play around. Here's what we know from the Monster Manual:

• The innate cowardice of dragonkind is shown by the fact most can be subdued.
•  Dragons’ egoistic nature makes them subject to flattery
• Greed and avarice are major motivating factors in all but the loftiest of dragons
• they are subject to manipulation by very clever persons or the prospect of actual treasure and the promise of more forthcoming.
• ALIGNMENT: Lawful evil
• They are very nasty tempered and thoroughly evil.

What I see is that green dragons are vain, cowardly, greedy, mean and evil. But, they have a clear goal: get more loot. As green dragons are lawful evil, they will adhere to a bargain struck, but will attempt to exploit loopholes as they see fit.
With that much information, I can finally develop a personality template for the dragon I'm currently calling Bertha:
Bertha will converse with interlopers, as she has an ego that needs to be fed.  This can also gain her information on the intruders, treasure hoards, and other potential information.
If she is insulted, Bertha will attack. She is willing to strike a bargain, even with weaker creatures, if they can further her agenda. The weak creatures had better offer something extraordinary to enter into the bargain, though.
Bertha's lair is set up for her to retreat to a high, safe location if her "guests" begin to overwhelm her. She can even leave through a large vent in the ceiling. I intend her to be able to be a recurring threat.

Does this sound like what a green dragon should be to you?

My 5 most important GM resource books

There are a lot of books that GMs can use to make their game better. Tonight I am going to highlight five of my favorites, and give a couple of honorable mentions. My game is a megadungeon, so that may influence this list. Here it is, with a few words on each:

5. The Name Book, by Dorothy Astoria (1992, 1997). It's simply a list of 10,000 names in alphabetical order. When I need a name, there is always one close at hand with this book. Pretty much any name book will do. Nothing is worse than Barkeep #12, so avoid that with a book you can find at a flea market or garage sale for less than a dollar.

4. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide (1st Edition), by E. Gary Gygax (at least 18 printings from 1979-1987?). The granddaddy tool book, this volume is quintessential to running any good game. Sure the rules are not well edited, and you have to hunt for similar things in different places. But, Appendix A is worth the confusion. You can literally create a dungeon by rolling dice with Appendix A. Appendix N is a list of "inspirational and educational reading" that can get any GM's creative juices flowing. You can find it for as little as $10 on Ebay, and probably cheaper at used bookstores, comic shops or conventions.

3. Bill Webb's Book of Dirty Tricks, by Bill Webb (Frog God Games) is a great resource for when the player-characters get out of control. He expertly explains how to bleed gold, resources, time, or anything else they might stack up too much of. And he makes sure the players still have fun! The PDF can be bought for $5 at the link to Frog God Games.

2. How to Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck, by Goodman Games (2017 - It may not be available at retail yet) This book contains advice from a lot of great designers: Jim Ward, Christopher Clark, Skip Williams and Brendan LaSalle to name a few. They cover a huge range of topics, from context to description. It's going to be $30 when you can get it. It is worth it.

1. Tome of Adventure Design, by Matthew J. Finch (2009, 2016), again published by Frog God . This book literally walks you through creating adventures. It has charts upon charts (and what self-respecting GM doesn't love charts?) with everything from location names, to types of clues, and
special effects for teleportation devices. It is basically the 1E DMG on steroids. It's going to set you back $21 on PDF or double that for print. Every time I am working on a dungeon, I pull out this book.

I'm not going to go into detail with my special mentions, but I think they are noteworthy. Someday, they may even get their own post. Here's 3 more books to be on the look out for:

Special Mention #1: Storyteller's Thesaurus by James Ward and Anne K. Brown
Special Mention #2: The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Curtis
Special Mention #3: The Random Esoteric Creature Generator by James Raggi

Hunt them down. You will be glad to have them all in your collection.

New stuff this week

So, these past two weeks have been a good one for acquisitions:

1. 3 Dufex prints all about 6" x 8"."Gods of Lankhmar, (Kieth Parkinson?" "Lord Soth's Charge, (Kieth Parkinson)" and the cover of Unearthed Arcana (Jeff Easley).
2. Cyclopean Deeps Volume 1 from Frog God Games came today.
3. My Bones came in! 
4. Unearthed Arcana, 1E Player's Handbook, and Oriental Adventures came in today. I traded some Bones for these!
5. Necropolis (3E) showed up last week.
6. I found the 3E Ravenloft and Relics and Rituals at a local store for cheap.
7. Gary Gygax's Hall of Many Panes was bought on Ebay and delivered.

That's not bad for a couple of weeks. And more on the way.

What's new in my game world. February 2015 edition

So, it's been a good week for my game library this month.

I picked up Tome of Horrors Complete and Tome of Horrors 4 from Frog God's sale early in the month. I am totally in love with these books. They would have been worth the money at retail price. Getting ToH4 for free pushed me over the edge to buy them, but I should have picked them up years ago.

They are well made books. In every sense. The artwork is good, the materials of the book are top notch. They are presented well. And all the monsters are available for the OGL. What's not to love about these products?

Then I picked up Rappan Athuk on 15%, also from Frog God Games. This book is insane! The players of my group are already begging to play it, and I've only had it for 26 hours. It is even better put-together than ToH. Faux leather cover, sewn in bookmark. I picked up the Player's Guide, the Monsters Book, and the GM Screen too. You can bet we will be playing this Character Killer soon.

I officially have a COMPLETE map for Mord Mar. It's only taken 2+ years. I have definitely got a lot of work to do. That said, reverting to 1E style map marking/description is something I should have done a long time ago. There's a reason I have all of those monster books. I don't need the stat blocks in the key.

Adventure A Week was doing a firesale on Facebook the other night. For $40, I was able to pick up a set of Rise of the Drow Dice, a RotD t-shirt, and a RotD "sackboy." Aren't they cute? Seriously, AAW does good work. Go check them out.

*Image stolen from Jonathan on FB. I don't know who took it.

PS I'm currently the high bidder on a Sword and Sorcery copy of Gygax's Necropolis.
PSS My Bones Kickstarter should ship today or tomorrow.*EDIT* It shipped today. Waiting for Monday now.