The Half-remembered Realms

In the Year of Our Lord, 1066, Uther Pendragon, Duke of Normandy, sailed his army across the English Channel and defeated King Vortigern at the Battle of Hastings.  He moved quickly to consolidate his rule over the island, which lasted from A.D. 1066 until his death in A.D. 1215.  In that year, the boy Arthur, foster son of Sir Ector of the Castle of the Forest Sauvage, was revealed to be Uther’s son and heir by pulling the sword Excalibur from the stone.  Although he had the backing of Merlin, and the miracle to substantiate his claim to the throne, Arthur was immediately beset by rebellion, led by King Lot of Orkney.  With war brought the usual scavengers of civilization; monsters who seized the opportunity to pillage and wreak havoc on a defenseless people.  Arthur, guided by Merlin, re-established the national Adventurers’ Guild that his father had previously abolished.  A royal stipend was given to the Guild to train up new heroes to fight the darkness which had spread over the land.

Free D&D

(Or, rather, at no extra cost to you, as long as you already have the proper dice, pencils and paper, graph paper, and notebooks. Also, a computer or smart phone and Internet connection.)

These are some resources I’ve recently discovered, that allow one to set up and play a fantasy tabletop dungeon crawler.

First, the rules: this is called “Delving Deeper”, and is a cleaned-up version of the original Dungeons and Dragons—specifically, the 1974 “White Box” version. There are three booklets one can download. Version 4 is the latest complete revision.

Second, there is a booklet that describes how to create a campaign world, in which your players’ characters can adventure. It’s called “The Gygax 75 Challenge”, and can be procured here.

Third, and as a companion to “The Gygax 75 Challenge”, there is a single page product by Matthew Colville’s MCDM company, that asks several questions to help develop ideas for a fantasy world.

That should be all one needs. Another product that is technically free, if you don’t mind being a moocher, is the “Swords & Wizardry Core Rules”. I bring it up because it has more extensive rules, with illustrations for creating dungeons than “Delving Deeper”.

If you need dice, there are free online dice-rollers available. For the real thing, starting out, I recommend checking out Walmart, which has been selling sets of dice with bags for around 8 to 10 dollars. Each set contains 42 dice, and six bags. Or, you can find out if you have a comic shop nearby, which might also have gaming dice.

Addendum: versions 1 and 2 of “Delving Deeper” contain a sample dungeon map in book 2. I don’t know why this was removed from the later revisions.

They did put up the sample dungeon as a separate product.

Dolmenwood versus the Grand Duchy of Karameikos

This post may contain spoilers, so if you are a player in a campaign that uses either Dolmenwood or Mystara, check with your DM before reading this.

Last September, I helped fund the Kickstarter for Necrotic Gnome’s new rule set, “Dolmenwood”. The rules are based on the Moldvay “B/X” Dungeons and Dragons rules, with some changes in both mechanics and flavor.

Work-in-progress PDFs of the three books (Player’s Guide, Campaign Book, and Monster Book) have been periodically sent out, as updates become available, and now the only things that remain are the addition of some artwork in all three books, and an introductory adventure in the Campaign Book.

Dolmenwood is an extremely atmospheric setting, based primarily on English and Celtic folklore, legends, and fairy tales. The area is under the rule of the Duke of Brackenwold, and has a variety of factions that players can deal with, from witches and Drune (kind of like Druids, but less nature magic and more occult magic), the Church of the One True God (fantasy Roman Catholic Church), a being of pure chaos called the Nag Lord, and Elves that come from the alternate dimension of Fairy. Each hex on the Dolmenwood map has interesting things for the Player Characters to investigate and interact with. An interesting element is that, in Dolmenwood’s history, an alliance among the nobles, the Pluritine Church, and the magic-practicing Drune was able to drive out an ancient evil. This mirrors the first three classes of original Dungeons & Dragons: the fighting-man, the cleric, and the magic-user. Pretty cool.

Forty-three years ago, TSR published the second edition of “the Basic Rules”, which were organized and written by Tom Moldvay. The “basic rules” were actually two box sets, “The Basic Set” and “The Expert Set”. In the book of the letter set was the description of a small campaign world, called “The Grand Duchy of Karameikos”. The adventure included with the Expert Set, “X1: the Isle of Dread”, expanded the map of a place called “The Known World”. Through a series of Gazetteers and published Adventures, the Known World was expanded and deepened, and eventually renamed “Mystara”.

The first Gazetteer is “The Grand Duchy of Karameikos” (available as a pdf or as print-on-demand at drivethrurpg.com) and has an Eastern European flavor to it, based on the real-life Balkan states, along with elements of The Byzantine Empire. It describes a land with two main human peoples, the native Traladarans and the invading Thyatians, along with societies of non-human elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings. There are also monstrous tribes, like goblins, and dangerous monsters, like vampires and werewolves.

To be honest, the Grand Duchy of Karameikos initially failed to interest me very much, because I associated D&D and fantasy with Western Europe—King Arthur and Charlemagne and Grimm’s Fairy Tales. It wasn’t until I saw this picture, in Necrotic Gnome’s set of retro-rules, “Old School Essentials”, that my imagination was captured for an Eastern European fantasy setting:

I’m sure this is the City of Specularum

I want to visit that place.

………..

Having read through much of Gazetteer #1, “The Grand Duchy of Karameikos”, I find that I prefer this setting to Dolmenwood, and am not entirely certain why.

I’ll begin with what I like about Dolmenwood. Firstly, we FINALLY get a relatively major published setting that has a monotheistic religious system. Western Europe, and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages was primarily monotheistic, with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Even the major non-Christian religion in the region, Islam, was monotheistic. There were still pockets of polytheism in the frontiers, of course, but the Knights of the Round Table did not worship Thor and Odin. Charlemagne did not give homage to Zeus and Apollo. The reason for having a polytheistic religious system for a game that was based on a culturally monotheistic society was probably to avoid controversy. Of course, then they put a naked woman on the cover of the book, “Eldritch Wizardry”. A drawing of a naked woman, I mean. Whatever.

………

After reading through a good portion of the Dolmenwood Campaign Book, I get an idea of the worldview of the authors. I could be wrong, but in my estimation, they present a world where the “good guys” are not much better than the “bad guys”. The top two leaders of the Pluritine Church—the main force of the concept of Law in the duchy—are of Neutral Alignment, and are hypocrites. The “good” Duke has done horrible things. One of the two lawful nobles has secretly turned non-lawful, because of drug addiction.

Meanwhile, over in The Grand Duchy of Karameikos, Duke Stefan is a good guy—even if he doesn’t always make the best choices. At first, he is resented by the native people he conquered, but his resolute commitment to fairness in ruling the duchy has won many of them over to his cause. He hasn’t done horrible things, except perhaps installing his evil cousin as one of his barons. His other two barons are good guys.

In The Known World/Mystara, there are no gods, but there are powerful beings called Immortals that act in place of gods. Above them in the mystical hierarchy are beings called The Old Ones, but I believe the rules state that these beings are known only to Immortals.—and even they aren’t exactly sure who the Old Ones are. There are two churches in the Grand Duchy; one is the Traladaran natives’ church, and the other is the church of the Thyatian interlopers. The differences are worship rituals and style. Also, the Traladaran church teaches that Duke Stefan is actually an ancient Traladaran hero reborn—signifying how popular Stefan is among the people he conquered. The authors of this supplement have more of the worldview that good guys are good, and bad guys aren’t mostly misunderstood and mistreated victims of the good guys. The bad guys *are* the ones who misunderstand and mistreat others.

………..

Changes I would make to the lore of Dolmenwood would first of all ensure that the good guys are actually good. The leaders of the church will all be lawful, and certain relationships will be adjusted to reflect that. Several nobles will switch from neutral to lawful. Clerics of the church will be situationally more powerful. The Drune will become less “occult magic druids” and more “misunderstood defenders of Law”.

Changes I would make to the Grand Duchy of Karameikos would be adjusting some of the economic elements, especially the tax system. Religion will change from clerics worshipping Immortals to worshipping a single deity that they call “Father Law”, with the Immortals acting as Father Law’s overseers—kind of like saints, in Dolmenwood.

One major thing I would adapt from the Dolmenwood rules to playing B/X and/or BECMI would be the chart for monster encounters. In “basic” D&D, the variables for monster encounters are how far away from the PCs the monsters are, and whether the monsters are friendly, neutral, or hostile. In the Dolmenwood Monster Book, there are added elements detailing what the monsters are actually doing—whether they are chasing a victim or trying to fix a wagon or relieving themselves in the trees. That’s genius. The PCs can decide to interact with the monsters, or skip away, if conditions allow.

Adding to the “Basic Edition” D&D Thief discussion.

Firstly, the class is not “thief”; it’s “dungeoneer” or “adventurer”, or something like that. Lamentations of the Flame Princess calls the class “specialist”, meaning—I take it—“someone who specializes in dungeon crawling”. We aren’t talking about criminals, here, despite what the rules claim. The rules are wrong about this.

The “thief skills” are abilities that the character can use in a dungeon setting. Picking locks, hiding in shadows, moving silently (which is a different activity than hiding in shadows), picking pockets, finding traps, hearing noises, and climbing walls. These are all useful abilities for exploring dungeons. A couple that are left off are deciphering script and casting spells—yes, a “Basic D&D” thief becomes a spell caster at tenth level, as long as a scroll is available.

Dungeons are unusual environments in D&D. They aren’t just ancient labyrinths with old-fashioned traps and goblins. They are arenas permeated with the spirit of Chaos. The dungeon works against the PCs, with doors slamming shut and getting stuck when PCs try to open them, but then open automatically for monsters.

“Thieves” train to overcome that hazardous, cramped, dark-as-night wasteland. They can not only hide behind a tapestry, they can hide in a bare hallway, as long as there are shadows.

They have the ability to “hear noise”, which is different than “listening for noise”. A character of any class can hush teammates and then press an ear against a door for ten minutes, but a “thief” can catch the nearly-silent whisperings of a band of kobolds waiting in ambush, just in time to warn the others.

Thieves can climb nearly sheer surfaces, but they don’t have to wait until they stumble across a chasm. They can try to scramble to the hallway’s ceiling and brace against the wall—in the shadows, of course—to wait for the ogre to pass beneath.

They can pick pockets, but the skill would be just as useful for planting a glass vial of holy water in the vampire’s pocket.

Picking locks isn’t necessary for unlocking doors or popping open chests—as long as everyone has time and no need to be quiet. But, if you need to sneak the magic amulet from the evil duchess’s jewelry box while her lady ship is in the next room, then you call in your “thief”. Things will likely go sideways, especially when the thief is at low levels, but there’s still a non-zero chance that it can work out.

The guards are on alert; they are expecting someone to show up to lower the drawbridge. Moving quietly isn’t enough. You need someone who can move silently.

The dwarf in your party can easily see that this hallway is a pathway of crushing or falling death, but the tiny hole in the chest’s handle is beyond his ability to perceive. The chest is obviously trapped, but *how* is it trapped, is the question.

BECMI adds the “remove traps” skill, which allows the “thief” to disable the trap.

Some thoughts on the module, “The Keep on the Borderlands”

I copy-pasted this from a thread I started over on enworld.

• Thread startercavalier973 Start dateSep 17, 2023

Nothing I write here will be new (probably).

I was reading through my copy of this module, thinking about trying to run it again with the tax deductions. As Professor Dungeon Master said in one of his videos, this is a mini-Westmarch campaign, except it’s really an “Eastmarch-style campaign”, because the wilderness is to the east of civilization.

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The wilderness is laid out in squares rather than hexes. The map key says, “One square equals 100 yards”, which is kind of vague. Is each square 100 yards by 100 yards, or is it 100 yards square? The section entitled “ADVENTURES OUTSIDE THE KEEP” indicates that PCs take an hour to traverse one square if searching, or they can cross three squares in an hour if (by implication) they are not searching. This seems incredibly slow, even if one square is 100 yards across. In fact, if one has the “Expert Rules”, then one can see that the movement rate for wilderness travel is the same number as in dungeon travel, except expressed in yards rather than feet. So, 90′ per turn becomes 90 yards per turn, when traveling outside a dungeon.

There are around sixty squares–if following the road–between the Keep and the Caves of Chaos ravine. If each square is 100 yards across, and it takes an hour to move across three squares (sans searching), then it would take 20 hours to get from the Keep to the Ravine. That’s two or three days.
If, instead, on takes the Expert rules for movement, and the PC party can move at 90 yards per ten-minute turn, then it would take them about 67 turns to get from the Keep to the Ravine, or about 11 hours.

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The trader will buy items from the adventurers at a 50% markdown from the prices on the equipment list. It isn’t indicated if, say, the PCs grab the spears out of the goblin cave and sell them to the trader, if the money so gained counts as XP.

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Apart from the Caves of Chaos, and the Caves of the Unknown, there are four areas: the Lizard Men’s mound, the spider lair, the mad hermit, and the raiders’ camp. That last one sounds like an excellent reason for the PCs to initially show up in this region: they saw a wanted poster for the raiders’ leader, with a hefty reward for his capture. The module doesn’t really give anything beyond, “You want adventure and riches”. If one were running this for people who didn’t know much about the module, then I would suggest keeping the Caves of Chaos a secret until the PCs have done some exploration, first.

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I’m sorry to say that I don’t remember who gave this advice, but the DM should play up a growing unease that spills over into terror, eventually. People go missing. Livestock are killed and pointlessly left to rot. Crops fail. The danger seems to arrive in the Keep, when a series of murders happen over several nights, a la “Jack the Ripper”. The Castellan stops visiting the tavern. The Curate starts locking up the church each night. When the PCs travel outside the Keep, they have a persistent feeling of being watched, even in the daytime. Maybe have a wealthy farmer hire them to protect his farm, and play out a scenario like this story from Mr. Ballen: https://www.youtube.com/embed/DMbY_AFXGX0
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B/X is a bit weaksauce when it comes to random encounters, but I didn’t realize it until I started listening to reviews of the upcoming Dolmenwood books. Have encounters in the wilderness that aren’t just monsters attacking. If one wanted more whimsical encounters, then have the PCs see a line of dwarves marching off to work, or, if they are in the forest, maybe they can just make out, in the dim light, a young girl talking to a wolf that stands on its hind legs. The wolf sees them, and runs away. Professor Dungeon Master has some of this advice in his “Caves of Carnage” series. Maybe some encounters are actually helpful to the PCs, like a talking tree that tells them how to get back to the road, if they got lost in the forest.

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Something I think is missing from this module is some ancient ruins; maybe an abandoned manor house, or the crumbling remains of a stone fortress. Perhaps the “Caves of the Unknown” lay beneath these ruins. The module specifically says that the DM shouldn’t allow the PCs to find the Caves of the Unknown until the DM decided, even if the PCs are searching in the right square. This may be because the Caves are hidden by illusions that are dispelled by something the PCs do in the Caves of Chaos, but maybe the entrance to the CotU only opens at a particular time of the year–on a new moon, for example.

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The module describes the priest as a jovial person, a fine companion, and a good listener, but no details are given to what he looks like.
From Hollywood, I immediately think of a fat, jolly Friar Tuck, but what if he is more like a good-guy character played by Cary Grant or Gary Cooper? Tall and in shape and good-looking?

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There is a section in the module that adds weight to an idea I have that the spell “Detect Evil” can reveal that an object is cursed.
On page 22, under “55. Chapel of Evil Chaos”, it speaks of bronze vessels will glow if “Detect Evil” is cast upon them. It doesn’t specifically say that the items are cursed, but the description of what happens if a PC picks up one of the items is pretty much what happens if a PC picks up a random cursed item. It says that “Dispel Magic” and then “Bless” needs to be cast to “save” the character that picks up one of the items.

Using Torches

Here is a video showing how to use torches, after it explicitly forbids the user from using torches. Also, making torches is apparently a trade secret:

THAC0 for fun and profit

THAC0 (“To Hit Armor Class Zero”) isn’t difficult to understand, despite what the rumors say.

This is *especially* true if you are a player (that is, not the game’s referee).

It is only marginally more complex than what is known as “ascending armor class”, where the player rolls a twenty-sided die, adds any bonuses or penalties, and tells the referee the result.

With THAC0, as a player, one rolls a twenty-sided die, adds any bonuses or penalties, subtracts the total from 19, and then tells the referee the result.

The player’s part is finished.

The referee compares the number told him by the player to the target’s armor class. If it is the same or lower than the target’s armor class, then the attack is successful, otherwise, the player’s character missed the target.

For example, the player rolls an attack, and gets a result of 16. He subtracts 16 from 19, a difference of 3. He tells the referee, “I got a three”, or, perhaps, “I hit an AC of three.” The referee checks the target’s armor class, which is a 5, and replies, “You hit the monster.” Or, the armor class is a 2, in which case the referee says, “You miss.”

1. To reiterate, if the player’s character has a bonus or penalty, then said bonus or penalty is applied to the die roll before subtracting from 19.

For example, if the player’s character has a strength score of 16, which grants a two point bonus to melee (hand-to-hand) attacks, then the player will add two to the roll, and then subtract *that* number from 19, and tells the referee the final result.

If the player’s character has a strength score of 7, then the character has a one point penalty. He must subtract one point from the die roll prior to subtracting the result from 19.

2. Depending on a character’s adventuring profession, he will improve his ability to hit armor class zero. Fighters will improve THAC0 by one point when they reach the fourth level of experience (this is in the Cook-Marsh Expert Rules). A fourth-level fighter will subtract a d20 roll from 18 instead of 19 (after applying bonuses or penalties).

Congratulations!

You have completed this course in Old School Table Top Roleplaying, earning 3 credits toward your degree as a Master Adventurer, and the coveted “THAC0 Genius” badge. Go forth to victory!

Maze Rats adventure

If you haven’t heard of it, there is a rules-light tabletop rpg called “Maze Rats”. It is available on Drive thru rpg for three bucks. There is also an adventure written by the rules author, available for a buck and a half.

I ran this yesterday with some family members. They said they had fun. The best part, in my opinion is character creation, since the player rolls not only for stats, but for things like appearance and personality and names (including options for upper class and lower class surnames).

The adventure is one page, and the game referee will have to noodle some things out, and improvise a lot. I cheated a bit, by suggesting to the youngest player the correct course of action, which she immediately did. Unfortunately, her character was the first to die. The game sort of fell apart after that. Still, the players said they had fun.

The Lawful Anarchist

So, about alignment in D&D…

Originally, there were just three alignments that characters could be: Law, Neutral, and Chaos. This system was carried into “Basic” D&D—those rules edited by Tom Moldvay and then Frank Mentzer.

1st Edition AD&D added to this “ethical axis” the “moral axis” of Good, Neutral, and Evil.

The rules in Basic provide some description for what each alignment means, and equates “Law” generally with good behavior, “Chaos” generally with evil behavior, and “Neutral” with non-malicious self-centeredness. In my opinion, these rules fail to adequately explain why “Law” is “Good” and “Chaos” is “Evil”. I think that part of the reason for adding the “Moral Axis” is to explain why legendary characters like Robin Hood could be considered a “good person” even though he breaks the law(s).

Some have attempted to describe “Law and Chaos” as the struggle between “Civilization and Wilderness”, but I don’t think this captures the essence of these concepts.

The rules system “Lamentations of the Flame Princess” comes the closest to explaining why characters who are aligned with “Law” are considered “good” and those who align with “Chaos” are considered “evil”. The rules are available free of charge somewhere on the Internets, but here is my paraphrase of the explanation:

Characters who are “Law aligned” believe that the world has a design, a purpose, and a destiny, and that there are consequences for their actions beyond the temporal—perhaps they believe in a personal Divine judge, or in an impersonal force of fate, but they believe that bad behavior will result in punishment at some point, and that good behavior will be rewarded, again, in addition to or beyond temporal consequences. That is why the “Law” character willingly stays behind to slow down the monsters so that his companions can escape.

Meanwhile, one who is aligned with “Chaos” believes that the world has no purpose, that events are undirected by any Divine or impersonal force beyond natural laws which developed randomly. He believes that his actions do not incur penalties or rewards beyond immediate circumstances. Now, he may act in ways considered “good”, and it may be due to his personal code, but because he doesn’t believe it matters, he is still of the “Chaos” alignment. Many who are of “Chaos” believe that there are no restrictions to their behavior, as long as they can get away with whatever it is they wish to do. The Chaos aligned character will stab his fellow party member in the back and take his stuff because he thinks he can get away with betrayal without consequence.

The title to this, my little essay, is derived from the idea that someone can be a political anarchist, but still be aligned with “Law”, because he believes that his deeds will have metaphysical meaning.

Classic Party Pic

D&D 4th Edition is superior to D&D 5th Edition

4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons is better designed and more fun to play than 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.

I know this, even though I have not yet played 5e.

When 4e was published, I found the rules interesting enough to spend time learning them.

I have attempted several times to do the same with 5e, but the rules just do not have the draw. I quickly find myself both bored and annoyed.

Also, Forgotten Realms is bleah. The Nentir Vale is where adventure happens.

But, 5e is extremely popular.

The only possible explanation is that 5e is the game designed for the barely-sentient passengers on the “Axiom” (before WALL-E arrived and woke them up).

4e was designed for people who can think for themselves.

Furthermore, anyone playing D&D “theater of the mind style” is doing it wrong. They are playing “let’s pretend” with dice. Without a map, there is no dungeon. Go back and read OD&D. The DM was expected to draw up a minimum of six maps, and populate it with monsters and treasures. AND THEN! One player was expected to draw those maps, based on the DM’s descriptions.

“But,” one may argue, as his lower lip quivers, “the battles didn’t have to use the map; they could still be resolved using TotM!”

Let me explain something to you: shut up.

No, 4th Edition is superior in every way to 5th Edition, except for maybe being popular with certain personages who don’t bathe or read books.