Remembering the Northern Marches

Well, hello there. Long time no see.

It has been awfully quiet around here the last while. I have been settling into my new job for the last couple of months and dealing with all of the kids summertime activities. I have been coaching my daughter's softball team and my son's soccer team.

With all the stuff going on the last while my level of gaming has declined dramatically. I am still DMing my 2nd edition AD&D game using Paizo's Rise of the Runelords. However, I have been woefully deficient in updating my blog about the campaign. I have really been enjoying it.

However, one thing I miss is my old Northern Marches game. Looking back the last session I DM'ed of that campaign was a year ago now. Looking back I know I made a number of mistakes with that campaign (primarily with the treasure level) but I sure enjoyed it. While the 2E campaign is really enjoyable, B/X is my favourite version of D&D for a reason (actually a number of reasons).

Also, my attempt to get Red Box Calgary going has also stalled due to my home and work activities. I am hoping to reboot it in the fall at which time I might try to restart the Northern Marches.

Thool guy, new blog

I have always loved everything that Scott Driver has blogged about in the past. His old Wilderlands OD&D and World of Thool blogs were always great inspiration and even made me feel a bit jealous about his creativity. It's a shame he took them down.

Well, Scott has a new blog Mandragora. You should really check it out.

If the thief is rolling the dice he is already dead

In my 2E game, there is a player who's character is a thief. Even though this is a 2E game, and some people only see evil when they think of 2E, this player is playing his thief very old-school. Last night, the thief an 3 other members of the party were investigating a ruined pyramid that they discovered was littered with traps. As the thief successfully lead the party through the deadly maze it made me think about the thief skill of find/remove traps.

A specific example of one incident... the party came upon a room in the pyramid that was still under construction when the pyramid was abandoned. The thief quickly emptied his backpack and filled it and some large sacks with broken chunks of brick and stone. He then spent the next while dropping or throwing chunks of rock where ever he thought there may be a pressure-plate or tripwire. It was activities such as this that made me think that the find traps skill is really akin to a saving throw.

If the thief-player is using his head, the find traps ability becomes the last resort - the "holy crap I hope this saves me" - dice roll that a saving throw represents. If the player describes what precautions he is taking and how he is protecting himself, the percentage roll to find traps becomes an after-thought except in the more devious of circumstances.

Why B/X Is My Favorite #19

Page B47:
"IDENTIFYING MAGIC ITEMS: A character can only identify the exact type of item by testing it (trying on a ring, sipping the potion, etc.)."

B/X doesn't have an Identify spell (which makes a nice gap for a magic-user to research a new spell). Sure a magic-user or cleric can cast Detect Magic but that even just ups the tension and suspense. Should you try the new magical chainmail you found? What does it do? Sure it might be chainmail +3 but it also might be cursed chainmail AC9... a BIG difference!

I think that one of the reasons why magic items have lost the "magic" in recent editions is it is either too easy to identify a magic item without risk or, even worse, players are just told what a magic item does up front.

Barbarians of Greyhawk

Over on Beyond the Black Gate are a great series of posts about re-imagining Greyhawk as a sword & sorcery setting.

This has got me thinking about running a short Greyhawk campaign using Barbarians of Lemuria, which has become one of my favourite sword & sorcery rule sets.

Under a vampire's spell

On page X41, the vampire's charm ability is described as:

"A vampire may also attempt to charm any who gaze into its eyes. The victim must save vs Spells to avoid the charm, with a -2 penalty on the roll. A charmed victim will be totally under the vampire's control, but cannot use spells or magic." (Italicized emphasis mine)

On page B16, the charm spell is limited by:

"Any commands given will usually be obeyed, except that orders against its nature (alignment and habits) may be resisted, and an order to kill itself will be refused."

Is the vampire's charm ability the same as the normal charm spell? If a victim is "totally under the vampires control" can they resist orders against their nature?

The Mistaken Synchronicity of Basic's Missile Weapons

I like to believe that the Moldvay, Cook and Marsh version of D&D is near perfect and everything in it was very carefully considered and forms a utopian synergistic whole. I also know that all it takes is to look for the description of the Detect Invisibility spell to blow that belief out of the water but let me dream.

Looking at the Missile Fire Ranges and Variable Weapon Damage tables in the Basic rulebook there are four missile weapons (not including thrown weapons):

Crossbow* Short 5-80, Medium 81-160, Long 161-240, Damage 1-6
Longbow Short 5-70, Medium 71-140, Long 141-210, Damage 1-6
Shortbow Short 5-50, Medium 51-100, Long 101-150, Damage 1-6
Slings Short 5-40, Medium 41-80, Long 81-140, Damage 1-4

* Two-handed weapon - always looses initiative.

Even though longbows and shortbows are not marked as two-handed weapons they obviously are. However, I like to think that this isn't a mistake or typo. I like to think this is a deliberate design choice to differentiate longbows and shortbows and allow them to follow the normal initiative rules.

This gives four distinct missile weapons:
1. Crossbows have the longest range, can be used by anyone except clerics but always loses initiative;
2. Longbows are in the middle for range, follow the normal initiative rules but can't be used by dwarves, halflings, clerics or magic-users;
3. Shortbows have only a slightly longer range than slings, follow the normal initiative rules and can be used by anyone except clerics and magic-users.
4. Slings have the shortest range, low damage and can be used by clerics.

Of course, then the Expert rulebook throws out this idealized belief of mine when it says that crossbows can only fire once every other round.

Oh well, I can ignore that if I have to.