Issue No 2!

Issue No 2 of Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols will hatch from gelatinous egg sacs this week!  The Fanzine of Old School Weirdness is BACK!

20 Quick Questions

...Edited for new helmet pic, as I discovered another 20 responder with the exact same Otus image--how gauche of me!


(Haven't posted in a while...must use crutch to get back into the game...)


I've been very interested to read the responses to Brendan's 20 quick questions, as houserules and rulings are always cool to hear about.  So, here are my replies:


1. Ability scores generation method?
             3d6, distribute as you will.  However, it should be noted that I don't use negative modifiers from ability scores, only positives.

2. How are death and dying handled?

            PCs die when they reach below their level in negative HP (e.g. a 4th level fighter dies when he gets to -5 HP).  Wounds can be bound after a battle (+d3 HP).

3. What about raising the dead?

            Getting someone resurrected is such a monumental pain in the butt that it either becomes a great story in and of itself, or the player decides to just roll up a new character and save himself the trouble.

4. How are replacement PCs handled?

            I let them play one of the NPCs or roll up a character 1-2 levels lower than the lowest PC.

5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?

            Group initiative with d6.  We have two huge rubber foam d6's, one neon orange, the other neon pink.  I love doing the roll off to see who goes first!

6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?

            Natty 20 gets double damage rolled or full damage, choose before you roll.  Nat 1 means you lost your weapon and need to spend a round retrieving it.  I should really make up a table of worse things for the critical fumble (stab friend in butt, anger the god of war with your incompetence, etc.).

7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?

           You probably look cooler, especially if it's some sweet Otus helmet.

8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?

            Hells yes!  Though I will usually warn the shooter ahead of time that the shot looks like it might be dangerous.

9. Will we need to run from some encounters?

            Only if you want to live...

10.          Level-draining monsters: yes or no?

          Yes, but only occasionally.

11.           Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?

            Yes, but again, only occasionally.  Most often death occurs due to failing to run, not checking for traps, deciding that this NPC is too big for his britches, etc.

12.          How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?

          Not strictly at all.  I find it tedious, so I just cut them off at a certain point.

13.          What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?

           You must wait for down time, but don't need to do any training.  Spells don't come naturally and are not usually shared.  They are one of the main forms of treasure, actually.

14.          What do I get experience for? 

            Killing, looting, playing your character even if it might get him killed, accomplishing something difficult that didn't involve getting loot or killing, whatever else I feel like giving xp for.

15.          How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?

            Combo!  You have to describe what you're doing and then I roll, with bonuses or negatives depending on how plausible your description sounds.

16.          Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?

            Not encouraged, necessarily, but my players know their way around a meatshield.  Morale is only used in battle, but is highly dependent on treatment.  Meatshields and retainers will often negotiate on the spot for more cash or rewards when they're asked to do something very dangerous.

17.          How do I identify magic items?

           Use it or take it to a shaman, cleric, witch doctor, elder, et al.

18.          Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?

            Maybe a potion, but it won't be a regular healing potion, it'll have side effects like making your hair fall out or bony protrusions grow out of your back.

19.          Can I create magic items? When and how?

            No one's ever tried to create a magic item, so I don't know.  I use Holmes' rule for Magic-Users making scrolls.

20.    What about splitting the party?

         My players never split up, but they could if they wanted.  Go ahead.  Try it.  :)

Black Pharaoh Foiled! Our First Labyrinth Lord Campaign Concluded

Wow! Tonight my small group completed a campaign that stretched 1.5 years. For many, I'm sure that isn't a very long time, but it was the first campaign for two of my players and my first in about 20 years. We used modified BX throughout and their characters reached 7th/8th levels after defeating tons of cultists, drug brewing mutants, giant phosphorescent ants, schizophrenic blobs, etc. They explored the Magus Xoth Ragar's mysterious laboratory, engaged in espionage against the notorious Black Hand in Pentastadion, and ultimately tracked the Black Pharaoh to his abominable pyramid in the desert. Great fun and lots of great ideas by these unpredictable players. Even though three of the main characters died, they were integral parts of the story that was made, so it proved once again the strange alchemy that makes a D&D campaign so satisfying. For now, I think I've earned my reward and will take a month or so off to recharge, read, and get the next campaign ready. One of the players has graciously agreed to DM for a bit. Woo hoo!

Portal in the back of the Trolls' water closet?

This is where it takes you:

Props to whomever created this image.  It's the bomb.  (Or after the bomb, tee hee.)

Mileage.

One of the PC's in my Lost Continent campaign owns a hawk whose name is Mahawkma Gandhi.  We have gotten more fun mileage out of that fact than out of some of the dungeons I've created.  D&D is awesome.  That is all.

Xenoscript Transvisualizer

Found within the navigation suite of a spaceship lodged in a dungeon, the Xenoscript Transvisualizer is a piece of Pahreen technology that allows one to read alien text.  To use the XT, one simply mounts it on the noggin, lowers the transvisualizer visor, and examines the text in question.  A turn must be spent on examination, but no roll need be made to decipher the script, the sense simply transfers to the wearer's consciousness via invisible ideation rays (yeah, that's right).

Lost Continent Session 33

(As of late, I've been waffling on whether to post write-ups of our Lost Continent sessions, knowing that I have never really done this before and most anyone reading it would be jumping in mid-story.  Well...I decided to go for it anyway.  Those who find them tedious can easily skip the posts, and it will serve its main purpose well: helping me and my players remember what happened when, and remain recollected when the details of the campaign proliferate.)

Session 33

Bellor Ruthenia, 5th level Moravian Shieldsman
Zoe of Zoe, 5th level Colonist Thief
Tune of Santa Monica, 6th level Stranger Sorcerer
Itchy of the Brotherhood of the Dawn, 7th level Colonist Cleric
Shaan Solo, 7th level Colonist Bounty Hunter

The party has been working out of Pentastadion for the past few months, adventuring professionally as "The Company of the Belching Dragon".  They have taken on odd delving jobs outside of town and under Pentastadion itself, and have attracted the attention of one of the powerful Syndics.  Her attendant, Rolando Blackman, recently negotiated with them, and they contracted to do a practice job: to explore and map a newly discovered underground complex accessible only through the cellar of a brewery in the warehouse district of Pentastadion.

The last session (32) found the Company venturing through the strange hidden door behind the brewery's mash tun again, descending a long stair and exploring what they would discover was the Den of the Thief Kings.  They cautiously moved through several decrepit rooms until they entered a small gallery with portraits hung on all the walls.  Two disparate figures stood on the far side of the room, stock still and unresponsive, staring at a large portrait of a human man.  Upon inspection, the two figures turned out to be a scruffy barbarian type, with pale skin and scant clothing, and a tall, thin, erudite looking man in a robe.  Both appeared alive and well, but completely still.  Tune judged them frozen somehow, perhaps by gazing at the portrait, and had Bellor throw a cloak over the painting.  They examined the rest of the room and found nothing, so as a last measure, Itchy called upon the power of Solus to banish any magical effect in the room.  In a flash of action, both men came to life.  The barbarian spun around and, seeing a sinister figure at his shoulder, stabbed the man in heart.  A tense standoff ensued between barbarian and adventurers while the robed man's life quickly ebbed away.  After attempts at communication proved futile, the party slowly backed out of the room and left the barbarian some space to leave safely.

More exploration of rooms followed, with the discovery of an empty lair and a shadowy altercation with foul humanoids resembling hyenas and covered with coarse bristling fur.  Arrows, plasma blasts and arcane bolts of energy flew back and forth, and several hyena men were slain.  The battle brought on fatigue, however, so the Company retired to a defensible room and locked themselves within for the night.

Session 33 began with the Company rising from a fitful rest in the small room.  Shaan smelled the odor of oil, while Zoe could hear several figures moving in the hallway outside.  Abandoning the better part of valor, Bellor threw open the door and Itchy charged into what he assumed was combat.  He guessed right and was able to engage the last two of the hyena men before they escaped down the hallway.  Itchy slew one, but the other shot a flaming arrow that brought fire licking all about the cleric's divine boots.  Itchy ran to escape the burning oil and Shaan sniped the last of the bestial fiends with a powerful blast of his plasma rifle.

The Company paused to catch its breath, then continued to explore the rest of the Den.  Among other things, they found a prop room used by an ancient thieves' guild.  Costumes and wigs filled numerous chests and wardrobes, but the main attraction was a raised platform set before a mirrored triptych.  A multitude of chains hung down with handles on them.  Itchy was the first to ascend the platform and pull a chain, finding himself immediately 30 lbs. heavier!  Disgusted but undaunted, he pulled again, and was rewarded with a Fu Manchu.

The Company moved on, encountering a shrine to Hermes wherein they gambled with the god, and other less exciting rooms.  (I can't remember anything else, honestly).

When they finished mapping the floor, they ascended the stairs and were immediately intercepted by Rolando Blackman's henchmen, who directed them quickly through panic-stricken streets.  Something was very amiss in the city by the sea.  But that's where we leave our party...

[I've forgotten big chunks of these sessions, apparently, and must set about fixing that by writing notes soon after the next session.]

Next installment: Panic in Pentastadion!

Under Pentastadion

To Itchy and Tune,

Here's a little map I put together from what I knows and what my buddy Treddo's herd.  I thot you guys could use the help and you've always been big tippers.  Let me know if you guys ever wanna hear some more stories about all those twisty places under Pentastadion.

Thog

 

(Thanks to Dyson for the map making lessons he's posted!)

Robotic Arm and Plexiglass Skull Flap

This is what I randomly rolled when one of the party's NPCs got "repaired" by the little tin men in a recent adventure.  They roam the ancient halls of the underworld picking up and repairing discarded life forms (dead or dying people and monsters).  As they are quite ingenious in their use of the scrap material at their disposal, they often provide extremely unique solutions for replacing the original "equipment".  Often they will drug and pick up an adventurer trying to sleep off his injuries, only to place him back where they found him after they finish their work.  Many a dungeon explorer has found himself thus: awakened as if out of a dream, possessing a slinky-like spring where his mangled foot used to be.

Tin Men
(No. 1-3; AC 6; HD 2; ATT 0; Dmg Nil; AL L.)

These 3' tall tin men are made of hollow pipes and have a hollow, cylindrical torso with a hinged door on the front.  If opened, a small, visible wisp of green or blue mist moves rhythmically within.  Of mysterious origins, they wander the halls of the underworld, seeking "broken" lifeforms to "fix." They will readily help any creature they encounter, regardless of alignment.


Random Repairs (d10)
1. Robotic Arm
2. Clear Fiberglass Breastplate (replaces skin; organs visible)
3. Rubber Tentacle-like Appendage
4. Subcutaneous Metal Plate
5. Wooden Hand (completely wired for movement)
6. Permanent Stone Helment
7. Plexiglass Skull Flap
8. Wooden (workable) Ear
9. Metal/Electronic Forearm that emits Heavy Metal Guitar sound effects once/hour
10. Kaleidascopic Glass Eyeball

The Mysterious Laboratory of the Magi Xoth-ragar

This is coming soon.  We played through it and had a blast, so I'm thinking of posting it up on the blog somehow (this will take some technological fumbling on my part).  Anyone have advice on how to post something that 8 pages or so?

Under Qatar: The Eldritch Vault

"You know the door to Hades is in my cellar, right?"

The old man laughed recklessly, wheezing between each breath in a way that made my lungs ache.  He feigned humor, but in his eyes I could read the nervousness.

"Lo, I've been down there but three times.  Once as a child, jess lookin' at the big door.  Agin as a young man, fightin that curiousness until the pee ran down my leg warm and full. Hehehee.  The last time, though, I leaned real close...and damned if that door didn't bulge out, all creakin' and warpin'.  Like it was dying to open for me.  Beggin' to have me come within..."

Qatar, the Whispering City

Just at the edge of the Great Desert squats a strange city built around an oasis.  The water is hardly more than a large mud puddle, and sandstorms turn the sunlight into an odd purplish glow upon the sickly clay dwellings.  But desert dwellers flock there nonetheless, for there is black cacti growing all around the Whispering City.  The visions gained from the powdered cacti's use are very popular among the empty headed as well as the greatest of magi.  In fact, people have flocked to the site for centuries, a fact attested to by the layers of ruins upon which the city is built.

Genre Mashing in Labyrinth Lord

I've been encouraging my players to give me some ideas of the types of things they'd like to see on the Lost Continent.  This is not for immediate use, mind you, but rather idea seeds that I can plant in far away places so they'll be nice and grown-in when the characters find them.  The LC is, after all, supposed to be huge and magical--so lots of variation was already on the table.  That's why I didn't bat an eye when Shawn Solo's player asked, "How about an old west town?"  We riffed on that for awhile, thinking of how that could be done cohesively.  We came up with some neat ideas and I'm looking forward to playing with it some more.  He'll be pumped when he finally comes across said town, all filled out and "real" in his character's eyes.

The process of thinking it out was fun, and got me thinking of the different styles of genre mash-up.  When introducing another genre, you really have a whole continuum of cohesion levels, from straight-up "the Enterprise just landed next to your castle" to "Elves are really aliens from another planet who passed magically through portals to this world, bringing higher technology."  In other words, the elements of the new genre can be dumped in without any eye for cohesion, or they can be "translated", so to speak, into your world's style/feel/mood.  Mash-ups on either end could be fun, I'm sure, but I find myself gravitating much more toward the heavily translated end of the continuum.  I want my old west town to seem like an old west town, but also not stick out too much from the other locales.  How is that done?

In the next few days I'll be working on it a bit.  We'll see what comes of it.

Dungeon to Wilderness, and Dungeon Variety

Returning to the RPGs of my youth has been interesting in a lot of ways.  I've already mentioned how creative collaboration is much better with my 30-something players than we ever had it when I was a kid.  Players create interesting  backstories for their characters that help the campaign, rather than trying to squeeze more power into their characters.  Also, the extra 20+ years of poring over graphic novels, watching movies, reading literature, etc. has meant even more cool ideas bouncing around than we had at age 12.  Some aspects, therefore, are changes for the better.  The only change for the worse, at least that I can see, is the fact that we can only pull off about 1 session a week, max.  Jobs and wives are much more time-consuming than water-polo practice and pre-algebra.

After all these years, however, some things seem to stay just the same.  When we first starting playing back in May, I made a small dungeon: two levels, about twelve rooms total.  There was a bare-bones town that served only to equip the characters, and we paid little attention to the wilderness trip to the dungeon.  Over time, however, and without consciously changing focus, we've naturally progressed through what I think might be the standard stages of fantasy role-playing.

Megadungeons: After the first few adventures, the characters discovered the location of a much larger dungeon, and many subsequent adventures have taken place within it.  These adventures never focus on "clearing" the dungeon, but rather involve exploring parts of it, finding an item, rescuing an old friend imprisoned there, etc.  There's an unspoken understanding that this dungeon has no "bottom floor" really, and there are all manner of monstrous entities and secrets hidden "down deep".

Town/City: After enjoying the megadungeon for awhile (and without discarding it), the players started to feel a little claustraphobic.  They sought out adventure in the towns and cities, and I had to flesh those places out to provide for the greater interest in them.  Much more interaction with NPCs began to occur.

Wilderness: The stage we find ourselves in now is one of wilderness exploration.  As the Labyrinth Lord, I find myself enjoying the creation of wilderness locales and small "mini-dungeons" (great inspirations here) for the characters to find as they wander the forests and jungles.

Now, I'll throw out some disclaimers out right away.  This progression has nothing to do with depth of play or "sophistication".  True, our initial adventures were more shallow, but that had nothing to do with the setting.  It had everything to do with me being, essentially, a brand new DM again.  I was learning how to dungeon master again after a 20-year hiatus.  These settings are phases only insofar as they appear to be the natural progression of discovery.  After bumping around in dungeons for a long time you want to start exploring the wilderness, or a town.  They are not phases in respect to growing out of one and into another.  Each new setting adds richness to the play experience, as far as I can tell.  I can see our campaign encompassing all these elements now, and allowing me flexibility to offer wilderness, dungeon, and city/town adventures to my players, and they have the flexibility to choose whatever they feel like at the time.  Additionally, I'd be willing to bet there are several other settings and styles of adventures that I haven't discovered yet.  I'm still quite green, no doubt.

It's interesting to see that this progression, with the same order, seems to be the norm.  At least, if you look at B/X or read about the styles of play in the original Greyhawk or Blackmoor campaigns.  Is this a common experience, I wonder, or do some groups pass through wildly different phases during the RPG learning process?

Lost Races

Preparing for the next Lost Continent session has been a blast.  One of the major themes on the LC has been the rise and fall of kingdoms and civilizations.  The whole (large map) area that the players have been exploring, for instance, is shot through with buried remnants of the Vesternee kingdom.  This is the same group of people who once visited the characters' homeland and sparked interest in the colonization of the continent.  Upon arrival, the characters' ancestors (the first colonists), found only ruins, however.

In our last session, the party had it's first encounter with the strangely tall, tattooed descendents of the Vesternee, who now reside deep under the city they once built.  This was a climactic moment, for the characters have been collecting information and encountering signs of the Vesternee for a long time, unaware that the descendents live.

Next session will most likely see the party searching for the abandoned stronghold of the dwarves, Duth-Ragar.  On the Lost Continent dwarves are a dwindling race (only several thousand are thought to exist) and they no longer dwell in the heart of the earth, but wander it's surface aimlessly.  Mystery shrouds the history of the dwarves, but perhaps delving into Duth-Ragar will bring some light to it.  Then again, there's always the chance that the characters will go down into the darkness themselves, never to return.

World Creation: The Lost Continent

I've been having a lot of fun lately with the Lost Continent.  Playing in it is awesome, but almost as awesome has been creating new countries, histories, etc.  I'm trying to tow the line between "having fun creating" and "over-creating to the point of noting every leaf shape and driving yourself freakin' crazy."  So I'm leaving some pretty large blank spots on the map, for sure, and I made the map a heck of a lot larger, to boot.

One reason I've been having so much fun is because I've been reading (get ready for an embarrassing confession) Robert E. Howard's Conan tales for the FIRST time!  I know, and I call myself an old-school gamer.  I have an excuse, though.  Check it: as I've mentioned before, I started gaming around 1989.  Why is this a good excuse?  Because in 1989 poor kids still bought used copies of Moldvay Basic at the swap meet for their first gaming experience, but the library was full of "AD&D" fiction.  Translation: I played old school D&D rules but was inundated with new school crap fiction.

Perhaps that's too harsh a judgment.  After all, I very much enjoyed Flint the King and the Dragonlance Chronicles.  But these were definitely post-D&D stories.  That is, the original stories in Appendix N inspired D&D in the beginning.  But then TSR pumped out a lot of Gary's stuff (heavily focused on Medieval Europe) and people played it and loved it and wrote new stories.  But these new stories were just Gary's world recycled.  This second generation of fiction was like inbred hemophiliac literature--still noble, but weak and uninspiring.  I just didn't know any better at the time.

But now!  Oh, sheesh, now I'm mainlining the real deal!  One paragraph of Howard is enough to set you on fire for a long time.  I'm tempted to just build up a library of the good old pulpy stuff and SLOWLY feast on it.  I say slowly because it is SO rich that you can savor this stuff for a long time.

So back to world-building.  I've decided that, since the Lost Continent is an immense place, there is room for everything.  The little niche that the PCs are in right now is somewhat Gygaxian/Medieval, but there is much, much more, out there.  Already I had swerved from rigid AD&D.  Dwarves are a dying race, with only a few hundred living as wanderers in the Untamed Lands of the far East.  No one on the continent has heard of an Elf.  And Halflings are a clever race of childlike people that most humans don't believe exist.  Outside of the Far East, no orcs, goblins, or hobgoblins exist.

It's fun to chop and slice, but I'm being careful, too.  We don't want to lose all our old friends.

Back in the Saddle...

Wow, I've been out to lunch.  Work, life, bla bla bla [excuses].

Let's blog about old school RPGs again!

The Lost Continent campaign has been rolling on.  In the last session the party finally located the Great Library, magically hidden on a sub-level of Ki'hago.  They got their library cards and slipped in just in time to witness a nasty fight between several toothed books.  There was much paper shredding and excitement.  They then uncovered some valuable information regarding the relics of the Black Pharaoh and got into a scuffle with some dog-sized dust mites.  Tune, the futuristic magic-user, was able to copy down some valuable information about Continental history and find a spell he might be able to use.  Now to escape Ki'hago again and be into the fresh air!

Excuses for Adventure: Optional Character Backgrounds

Why has your new PC decided to embark on a career in adventuring?  He is seriously considering delving into dark holes in the ground where he knows nasty creatures dwell.  He is embarking on a journey that will most likely include regular bouts with grave danger, wandering from one end of the continent (or dimension) to the other, etc.  There must be some sort of powerful reason…

1. Running away from a battleaxe wedding.  “I never should have asked her to go to the barn with me…”
2. Running out on a boring/laborious/unpleasant apprenticeship.  “If the master makes me warm up his coffee one more time, I swear…”
3. Running away from trouble.  “I did it like this.  I did it like that.  I did it with a wiffle-ball bat. So…”
4. Modern man lost in another dimension.  “Remember ‘Army of Darkness’?  Yeah.  All I need is a frickin’ chainsaw arm.”
5. Sent on a quest.  “The Order says I need some field experience, so you don’t happen to know where I could find the Shrine to Evil Chaos, do you?”
6. In search of the duchies.  “I like money—plain and simple.   Nasty monsters have the best bling.”
7. Revenge.  “Ever since his mother was eaten by bugbears he’s just itchin’ to go out and kill everything that lives in a cave.”
8. Ideological.  “Evil must be vanquished!”
9. Ideological.  “Do-gooders must be vanquished!”
10. Cursed.  “That evil wizard mumbled something and now I’ve got to keep moving every month before people start to get suspicious.
11. ...

Hall of the Fallen: Sturik

Ah, another hero fallen.  Well, not exactly a hero, I suppose.  Sturik was a devious little guy with a parrot on his shoulder.  He was pretty good at exacting extra fees out of the party members whenever he was asked to do something above the normal torch-bearing, even having to be told at one point, in the heat of battle, "One extra gp for everything you kill, Sturik!"

Alas, even as he began to pull his weight a bit, a large Rhagodessa was able to attach to his head.  The next round it found its mark, with it's powerful mandibles delivering a crushing squeeze to his pinhead.  Ever turn the blender on high without covering the top and all the margarita squirts out of the top?  Yep.  Sturik's head 'sploded.

(One player asked, "Is he, like, just unconcious? Or dead dead?"  Dead dead, dude.

Lost Continent Campaign: The Party

The posts I've made so far are all the result of house rules and background for my Lost Continent campaign.  Started back in May or June, we've been going strong all summer.  Our daring party is made up of five characters (2 PCs and 3 NPCs), ranging from levels 2-3.

Ichi, the brave cleric, is a member of a religious order whose apostolate is thrashing evil.  He was originally sent on a fairly innocuous errand, but ended up as the Order's operative in a struggle with evil cultists.  Since proving himself a reliable adventurer, he has been inducted into a small, secret order-within-the-order.  This small group masquerades as pilgrim priests, but secretly wanders and watches the continent for any sign of rising power among the followers of evil.

Shawn Solo is a professional "obtainer" of things.  He began his career as a thief, but soon became a bounty hunter and adventurer (homebrewed character class that mixes some thief skills with some fighter attributes).  He joined Ichi on the road early on, traveling into the wild after a bounty: the mysterious Zoe, alleged murderess and former lover.

Zoe travels the continent, surviving by hustling and skill.  She's as dangerous as she is beautiful, and though unpredictable, often shows a soft heart, especially toward Shawn.  She stays far from the large cities, as she is still wanted for murder.

Bellor Ruthenia, a jovial warrior from the North, joined the party early on.  Despite losing his best friend, Dingler the Dwarf, he joined the party as a full member along with Zoe.

The final member is Tune, a torch-bearer with a secret.  He talks like a surfer dude, but appears to be more than he tells.  After surviving much longer than all previous Torch-bearers, he was allowed into the party as a partial member (doesn't get quite as much loot).

Besides these five, there have been numerous torch-bearers, guards, and men-at-arms, none of whom were able to survive too long.