RetroRoleplaying: The Blog

Microlite74 Special Version I Now Available (FREE)

2013-05-22T14:44:00.001-05:00

When I announced this project, I figured it would only take a week to ten days to do as the material was written. All I had to do was strip out the campaign specific information (aka the "product identity") and reformat. Unfortunately, seasonal allergies and other real life things conspired to give me little free time -- at least little free time where I felt good enough to work on it. However, almost a month after I announced this "quick" project, it is finished. Microlite74 Special Version I is ready for download.

To recap, this project started last month when I was offered a $100 donation to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund if I would piece together various rules from the different Microlite74 rules sets and companions (and customize them slightly) for a specific GM's campaign world. I decided that the customized version of the rules was interesting enough to stand on its own without the 20 pages of private campaign material and Microlite74 Special Version I.

This special version of Microlite74 is designed for a campaign world with only two deities (a Lord of Light (order) and a Lord of Darkness (chaos) who oppose each other. Magic is both common and rare in this campaign world in that about 25% of the population have the ability to use Minor Magic at will (including all characters and NPCs with a class level), but arcane magic is otherwise limited to long, complex, and costly rituals. Clerics have limited spell-like abilities called prayers. True magic Items are almost non-existent. What true magic items do exist are created by the GM as needed and are always one-of-a-kind. Magic items created by binding spirits to material items are more common.

The campaign these rules were designed for was centered around a large decadent empire which which was starting to fall apart at the seams while its borderlands were breaking away or were being overrun by subhumans and monsters. The central portions of the empire were ignoring the problems. The Church of Light was aware of the problems but its influence on the imperial government had been reduced by scandal after scandal. In the borderlands, however, the Church of Light was often the only institution able to see beyond local issues. The campaign world was early renaissance, at least in the central parts of the empire, but hand guns and long guns were never invented.

You can download your free copy of Microlite74 Special Version I from Mediafire. It's 24 pages and about a 1.15 meg PDF.

Download Microlite74 Special Version I

If you like this free RPG, please consider a donation to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund.

New Monsters: The Thunderstinger, Red Doom, and Flame Wings

2013-05-20T14:23:00.000-05:00

Long ago, I picked up a copy of The Dungeon #10 at my hobby shop just as they arrived. This was the October 1977 issue and was one of the first issues of The Dragon magazine to be available at Dibbles. This issue had a couple of good articles and the Snit Smashing boardgame -- the first Tom Wham game published in The Dragon. The best article in the magazine from my point-of-view was "Random Monsters" by Paul Montgomery Crabaugh. Two pages full of tables for rolling up random monsters. Not random monsters as in what standard monster appears on Dungeon Level 6 on a roll of 8 or what monster appears in a forest hex on a roll of 12, but a method of creating completely new monsters that had never been seen before.

I rolled up a lot of them and wrote each one on a 3x5 index card. When I needed a new monster for an encounter, I'd let a player draw a card from the deck and that creature was what they ran into. As the discovering group, they would get the honor of naming the monster if they defeated it (or at least managed to survive. Most of these random monsters were seldom, if ever, seen again. A few, however, became regular "standard" monsters in my campaign. I've listed of few of those below. The descriptions as rolled up from the random monster card (yes, I still have most of these cards). The names were all given by my First Campaign Arn group. You should be able to take this "card descriptions" and write them up for whatever system you are using. Consider these Open Game Content.

Thunderstinger
Highly Intelligent, Neutral, Reptile
Speed: 9", AC: 3, HD: 6d8+1
Damage/bite: 1d10
Special Features: 2
-- Breathes Lightning: 2d6 damage, 2x/day
-- Sting in tail, does paralysis (save okay)
Physical Description:
Looks like a giant scaled toad (dark with occasional yellow patch of scales) with a scorpion like tail with a glowing stinger. About 12 feet long, 50% of that is tail).

Red Doom
Unintelligent, Chaos, Undead
Speed: 6", AC: 7 HD: 2d8
Damage/touch: 1d6
Turned as a Zombie, Destroyed by holy water.
Physical Description:
Red-skinned humanoid with rotting flesh. Mindlessly obeys last order given by their creator. Their touch causes 1d6 painful rotting damage, turning the area hit to an ugly red until healed or washed with holy water (which also eliminates the pain).

Flame Wings
Unintelligent, Lawful, Mammal
Speed: 6" (Fly: 18) AC: 8, HD: 3d8
Damage/touch: 2d6 fire
Special Features: 1
-- Fiery Aura surrounds creature (think Human Touch), damages all it comes it contact with
(This was rolled as "does double damage" and was my explanation for why)
Physical Description:
Small bat-like creature with a 3 foot wingspan. At night, it looks like a flying fireball from a distance.

Quick Update on Lords & Wizards Progress

2013-05-19T14:39:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry that I've been silent for a few weeks. My seasonal allergies turned into a nasty sinus infection which I am just now truly recovering from. It seemed to be immune to the initial drugs I was given.

Progress on Lords & Wizards rules writing has been slow. This is a good thing because we still do not have its full direction mapped out. A couple of my players really lobbied for basing the system on the Adventurer Conqueror King System instead of Labyrinth Lord or Swords & Wizardry as I had originally planned. We've now tried that and it simply did not work as well as its proponents in my Sunday group hoped it would. Two of the most noticeable issues were proficiencies and tying expected wealth to experience points.

Proficiencies are simply a mess when you are used to my broader backgrounds and talents system. They are often more limiting and a couple of different attempts to combine ACKS proficiencies and my backgrounds and talents system simply made a larger mess that brought out the worst in both systems. Proficiencies are technically optional in ACKS, but dropping proficiencies takes away one of the main reason for using ACKS as the rules framework.

There are two problems with the ACKS XP-Wealth tie. First, I do not like anything that works remotely like "wealth per level". If a group of first level characters manages by some miracle to get an ancient red dragon's hoard, that's fine with me. I don't want to feel like I need to stop this because it will make the characters far too wealthy for the mechanics of the system. Likewise, I don't see anything wrong with a 10th level character who has gone broke and do not want the rules mechanics making this inadvisable. The second problem with tying XP to wealth is I really want to use the partial XP for weaker monsters rules as 0e and 1e did. For example, under these rules, if a 4th level character defeats a 1st level (aka 1HD) monster, he'd only get one-quarter of the XP the monster and its treasure would normally give. I used these rules back in the day and the object of Lords & Wizards is to create and (slightly modernized) version of the weird combination of 0e, 1e, B/X, Arduin, house rules, etc. I used in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Using a partial XP for weaker monsters rule tosses the idea of the ACKS XP-Wealth tie out the window.

Don't get me wrong. I like ACKS and think it is a good game, but for these and other reasons it has become fairly obvious than ACKS is simply not a good framework to base the Lords & Wizards rules on. Even the two strong proponents of basing L&W on ACKS among by Sunday game players agree that it simply does not work as well for L&W as they thought it would. Starting with today's game, we'll be trying a version of L&W based on the Labyrinth Lord family of games (Labyrinth Lord, Original Edition Characters, and Advanced Edition Companion). I expect that this will be a better fit for what I am trying to do. This does not mean that ACKS will have no influence on L&W, however. I expect many of the campaign design and high level/domain play ideas from ACKS may eventually find their way into L&W -- at least as a major influence.

New Microlite74 Variant Coming Very Soon

2013-04-26T21:11:00.000-05:00

I was recently (like last Monday) offered a $100 donation to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund if I would piece together various rules from the different Microlite74 rules sets and companions (and customize them slightly) for a specific GM's campaign world. I did so. I'm now stripping out the specific "product identity" of the donor's campaign world so I can release this special version to the general public. I hope to have it done in a few days.

The campaign world is what makes this "special version" of Microlite74 different. Some important differences with standard rules:

* Two Classes (Adventurers and Clerics), max level is 12.
* Only two deities, the Lord of Light and the Lord of Darkness (think Zoroastrianism).
* True (Arcane) magic is rare. It can only be cast via long, complex, and expensive rituals.
* Clerics have prayers (aka their normal divine spells). Clerics of the Lord of Light can also turn undead and create herbal healing potions. Clerics of the Lord of Darkness can also command undead and animate dead.
* About 25% of intelligent beings are able to use an expanded form of Minor Magic called Sorcery. All player characters are assumed to be in this 25%. Sorcery includes casting minor magic "spells", arcane blast, and sorcerous dueling. It also can include alchemy and/or spirit binding, but these increase the experience base of a character if taken.
* Anyone can try to cast True (Arcane) Magic spells as long, complex, and expensive rituals. Those with Sorcery have a slightly better chance of success. Of course, first you have to find a copy of the ritual (magic spell) you want to cast. And spending a couple of hours to cast a fireball is only going to be useful in a limited set of circumstances.
* True magic items are rare and each must be designed by the GM if wanted. Most magic items are simply spirits bound to items.

Brown Box/Wee Warriors Drive Results, Part II

2013-04-23T12:24:00.001-05:00

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Retroroleplaying Cancer Fund Drive ended on April 11th. We selected winners of the random drawings at my Sunday Game on April 14th. The first part of the results (posted last week), listed the high donor winners. This post lists the random drawing winners, or at least those who told me I could post their names and/or locations. All items have now been shipped. Again, I'd like to thank everyone who donated (and there were a lot of you) for your generous donations.

The "Guidon Games Chainmail (2nd Edition, goldenrod cover)" went to Fredrick J. of Aspen, Colorado. James B. from Michigan won the copy of "Wee Warriors Character Archaic (TSR distributed)" and a copy of the "TSR Monster & Treasure Assortment #1, #2, #3". Havard G. from Los Angeles drew the seven issues of "The Strategic Review". Sal W. of Altanta won the signed copy of the "Empire of the Petal Throne". Dawn S. of Boston won a Starbucks gift card. Alvin R. and Samuel C. won DrivethruRPG gift certificates. People who either requested to remain anonymous or who never gave permission to list their names drew the following items: "Wee Warriors The Endless Dungeon", "TSR Dungeon Geomorphs #1, #2, #3", "TSR Outdoor Geomorphs" and Steam, Amazon and DrivethruRPG gift certificates.

Lords & Wizards Playtest: Basic Changes to ACKS

2013-04-21T14:14:00.001-05:00

Here are some of the basic changes to the Adventurer Conqueror King System we are using at the start of the Lords & Wizards conversion -- the rules we'll be using this afternoon:

Race
Race and Class are separate. Humans are the standard. Others races add abilities which increase the XP total needed to advance for a standard class:

Dwarves: +200xp (2nd), +400XP (3rd), +600xp (4th) +800xp (5th)
Elves: +125xp (2nd), +250xp (3rd), +375xp (4th), +500xp (5th)
Halflings: +150xp (2nd), +300xp (3rd), +450xp (4th), +600Xp (5th)

Background
Characters may select, with the approval of the GM, a one or two-word background that represents a broad base of skills and knowledge, e.g. Farmer, Merchant, Desert Nomad, Noble, Shaman, Templar, Thyatian Mercenary, Ritualist, etc. Backgrounds need not be related to the PCs class, e.g. a player who creates a deeply religious fighter skilled in the arts of vision interpretation, divination and oration might pick 'Prophet' as a background. Backgrounds may not duplicate a class. The GM will consider the character's background just as he would the character's class when deciding if a character will succeed with an action. For example, a character with an “Engineer” background should have a much better chance of damming a creek or building a bridge over it than a character with a “Courtier” background.

Task Resolution
There are no specific skill to roll against in Lords & Wizards. Instead players are expected to think like adventurers, tell the GM what they are doing and the GM decides if it will succeed in the situation,
taking into account the character's class, background, and proficiencies. If the GM decides a random success chance is truly needed he may resolve the situation with a roll of his choice or he may call
for one of the following rolls:

Proficient Task Roll: 1d20 + Stat Bonus + Class Level if the character is attempting something directly covered by a Proficiency which the character possesses.

Skilled Task Roll: 1d20 + Stat Bonus + (Class Level/2, round up) if the character is attempting something strongly related to their class or background.

Unskilled Task Roll: 1d20 +Stat Bonus + (Class Level/4, round down) if the character is attempting something not really related to their class or background.

When the GM calls for a task resolution roll, he will declare the type of task roll, which stat the task roll falls under, and any situational modifiers and the player will make the task roll. (The GM should
make the roll in secret if seeing the result would give the player more information than his character should have.)

Roll higher than the GM assigned Difficulty Class to succeed.

Suggested Difficulty Classes:
Normal - 10, Hard - 20, Very Hard - 30, Legendary - 40, Nearly Impossible - 50.

Hit Points
If Hit Points reach 0, the character is unconscious and begins to take severe physical injury. Further damage, including any remaining points of damage the attack that reduced hit points to zero, directly reduces Body Points. Hit Points represent stamina, luck, minor cuts and scrapes, etc. Optional: To avoid confusion, “Hit Points” may be renamed “Fatigue Points.”

Recovering Hit Points: All characters recover all hit points after six hours of total rest. If a character has lost Body Points due to wounds, only 50% of total hit points lost are recovered per six hours of rest.

Body Points
All characters have 10 Body Points. If Body Points reach 0, the character is dead. Each point of body damage a character has suffered gives a -1 to all attack, success, saving, and similar rolls.

Healing Body Point Damage: Body points lost recover at a rate of 1 point per 4 full days of rest (adjusted by CON bonus: decreased by 1 day per point of positive bonus, increased by 1 day per point of negative bonus; minimum of 1 day). If a character with up to 5 points of BP damage performs more than very light activity or careful travel during a day, he has a 50% chance of losing an additional body point. If a character with 6 or more points of BP damage does anything other than rest quietly in bed during a day, he has a 50% chance of losing an additional body point.

Casting Spells
Casting a spell costs one HP. A caster may attempt to cast a spell without spending a hit point, but must roll over twice the spell's level on a D20 or the spell fails and is lost from the caster's repertoire until he has a chance to re-add it to his repertoire (arcane caster) or performs a minor penitence set by a higher level cleric of his deity (divine caster).

Extra Effort
Characters my spend hit points before they roll a die, each hit point spend adds +1 to the die roll. A character can spend no more than 50% of their level (rounded up) in extra effort on any single task.

Note that we are trying a different method of handling proficiencies from the one I thought of a few days ago. While this new method will requiring rewriting a number of proficiency descriptions, it will (if it works in actual play) play well wityh my Background system -- which all my players would to see retained.

ACKS, Lords & Wizards, and the Problem of Proficiencies

2013-04-16T13:16:00.000-05:00

Many readers know that I loathe feats as used in WOTC D&D because far too many of them take things that anyone should be able to try to do and limit trying to do it to those characters who have a particular feat written on their character sheet. This generally leads to one of two situations, either the GM still allows characters without the feat to try to perform the action (often upsetting players whose characters who took the feat) or the GM refuses to allow anyone to perform the action unless they have the feat on their character sheet (no matter how unbelievable this restriction is). In a game with hundreds or thousands of feats (like WOTC editions of D&D), such issues can become a real problem. This is especially if you are playing "old school style" where characters need to solve in game problems creatively as many of the things they will want to try will likely be limited to someone who has taken one of those hundreds or thousands of feats.

One solution, of course, is to limit feats to only providing a bonus for actions that anyone should be able to try. Only actions that absolutely require training (or special genes) to even attempt with a measurable chance of success could be turned into a "special snowflake" (i.e. only because you have this feat you can attempt to do X) feat. Unfortunately, game designers tend not to design feat this way because there is a sizable and vocal group of gamers who believe that only "special snowflake" style feats are interesting and worthwhile to take, so many games that use an ever expanding list of feats end up limiting more and more actions that any character should be able to try to do with some chance of success to only those characters who have taken the appropriate feat.

I'm currently working on adapting the ACKS rules to be the underlying system for Lords & Wizards. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that while most of ACKS current Proficiencies do not block out tasks than anyone should be able to do and limit them to those with the proficiency, there are some ACKS Proficiencies which do and those will not work in Lords & Wizards.

Here are three examples of a ACKS Proficiencies that seem to effectively limit character actions to those characters with the Proficiency:

Bribery: The character is exceptionally skilled at bribing officials with gifts of money or merchandise. Offering a bribe permits an additional reaction roll during encounters, with the throw modified by the size of the bribe. As a general rule, a bribe equal to one day’s pay for the target provides a +1 bonus, a week’s pay provides a +2 bonus, and a month’s pay provides a +3 bonus. Only one bribe can be attempted per target in any given situation.

Sensing Power: The character can detect spellcasters within 60’ and estimate their level of power relative to his own. He can tell when arcane magic has been used within the last 24 hours within the same vicinity. Each use takes a turn.

Trapping (G): The character can build simple pits, snares, and deadfalls capable of capturing creatures up to the size of an elephant (such as giants, ogres, wyverns, etc). With a proficiency throw of 11+ the snare is built properly. The character can also detect and disable simple wilderness pits, snares, deadfalls, etc., as a thief of his class level. This proficiency provides no abilities with regard to mechanical traps in a dungeon, or magical traps of any sort.

Bribery is a real problem as anyone should be able to attempt to bribe someone. The proficiency description seems to recognize this at the start by saying it represents a character who is "exceptionally skilled" at bribing. The problem is is suggests bonus to the reaction roll for bribes that are so low that there really isn't any room for bonuses for characters without the proficiency attempting to bribe. The bonuses given are about what I would normally give for anyone making a bribery attempt. Given the way reaction rolls work, however, any higher bonuses would not make sense and might even break the system. As written bribery tries to allow for the fact that anyone can try to bribe, but actually fails to leave any real room for characters without the proficiency to try to bribe with any realistic effect.

The Sensing Power proficiency isn't a problem. While it provides actions that only those with the proficiency can perform, they are actions that someone without special abilities and/or special training would simply not be able to do. This ACKS Proficiency is fine as written.

The Trapping proficiency is another real problem. IMHO, anyone can try to build simple pit, snare, and deadfall traps with a reasonable chance of success. With training their attempts might function better and be harder to spot, but trying to limit digging a hole in the ground and covering it to only those with training is not very believable.

Given that I do not want any proficiency in Lords & Wizards to block out actions than any character should be able to try to do, I need to come up with a method to handle ACKS proficiencies like Bribery and Trapping without nerfing the proficiency for characters who have it; without preventing characters who do not have the proficiency from attempting to bribe someone, build a trap or perform some other action covered by an "everyman can try" proficiency; and with requiring much extra effort on the part of players or the GM.

My first thought was to simply treat the proficiencies a character has like his character class or background in my normal background and skills system. Unfortunately, I saw a number of issues with this. For example, it does not really give a character with the Trapping proficiency any bonus if the character has a background (like Woodsman) that includes the abilities of proficiency.

My second thought was to give any character attempting to perform an "everyone can try it" action that is covered by a proficiency but without having the proficiency a -5 modifier to any roll needed to determine success or failure. This would work. However, it would be a pain in the ass to GM. Any time a character wanted to try to perform an unusual action, the GM would have to look through a list of proficiencies to determine whether the action the player wants his character to perform is covered by an "everyone can try" proficiency. At the moment, this would be a short list which the GM could easily memorize, but chances are the number of "everyone can try" proficiencies available will grow with time.

The best way to handle this would be to come up with a method that only comes into play when someone with an "everyman can try" proficiency uses it. A +5 bonus to the die roll for characters with the proficiency could work (the opposite of my first method), but given that the success determination procedure differs somewhat from proficiency to proficiency, the bonus would probably vary with the proficiency. The bonus would need to be added to the proficiency description and the players and GM would need to remember to use it. This would work, but it would be nice to come up with some easy system that worked the same way for every "everyman can try" proficiency as it would avoid the need to rewrite proficiency descriptions and add non-standard modifiers than need to be remembered or looked up.

After some thought I came up with what I think is an easy system. If a player with an "everyman can try" proficiency uses that proficiency to perform an action, he gets two rolls (whatever the proficiency description says) and the most favorable result is the one that counts. This will need playtesting, of course. If it works it would be allow the rolls and modifiers in the proficiency description to be used by both characters with and without the proficiency when attempting to do things covered by the proficiency. For example, a character attempting to bribe a guard with a day's pay would get a +1 to the reaction roll -- but if the character had the Bribery proficiency (and remembers to tell the GM that he does), the GM would roll the reaction roll twice and the better for the character result would be the one that counts.

We'll be playtesting this "roll twice of you have the proficiency" method of handling "everyman can try" proficiencies over the next couple of sessions and see how it works in actual play.

Brown Box/Wee Warriors Drive Results, Part I

2013-04-15T10:25:00.001-05:00

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Retroroleplaying Cancer Fund Drive ended last Thursday. We selected winners of the random drawings at my Sunday Game yesterday. Those will be published once every is contacted (some people wish to remain anonymous, so I don't release names until I'm contacted the winning donors). However, the high donor ideas have been awarded and were mailed out this morning. I'd like to thank everyone who donated (and there were a lot of you) for your generous donations.

George J. of "somewhere in rural Montana" was the high donor. He selected:

TSR OD&D Brown Box, 3rd printing OD&D Brown Box 3rd printing (plus the 4 supplements each a 1st printings: Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, and Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes)
Guidon Games Chainmail 1st printing signed by Gygax and Perrin, good condition (donated by John C.)
Wee Warriors Misty Isles.

I asked George how much gaming he gets to do in rural Montana. He says that play by post games and Fantasy Grounds are long-time friends, so he actually gets a lot of gaming -- just very little face-to-face.

Manual G of Southern California was the second highest donor. He selected:

Wee Warriors Palace of the Vampire Queen (TSR distributed)
Wee Warriors The Dwarven Glory (TSR distributed)

He also won a one of our surprise items in the drawings: A $10 Starbucks Gift Card.

There was a tie for third highest donor. A donor who wishes to remain anonymous ended up with the prize and selected:

TSR The Strategic Preview #3-6

I hope to contact the drawing winners over the next couple of days. With luck, I have replies from all of them by the end of the week and can do a Brown Box/Wee Warriors Drive Results, Part II post.

BTW, we reached the first bonus goal but fell short of the second. Therefore no one got the autographed adventures.

Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive Ends Tonight

2013-04-11T13:43:00.002-05:00

Today is the last day of the The Brown Box/Wee Warriors donation drive. It ends tonight (actually at 7am CDT April 12 -- when I check for email that arrived overnight). We reached the first trigger point for bonus items yesterday, so the Guidon Games Chainmail 1st printing signed by Gygax and Perrin, good condition and the TSR Empire of the Petal Throne boxed set signed by Barker, excellent condition will be given away (both donated by John C.). As of this writing, we are about 74% of the way to the second target which will trigger adding two additional autographed bonus items to the giveaway (To The Aid of Falx (1981 Tournament printing) signed by Frank Mentzer, good condition and Daystar West Pharaoh (1980) signed by Laura and Tracy Hickman, good condition -- both donated by John C.). these are in addition to a Brown Box D&D set and the wee Warriors items. The first link below gives full info on what lucky donors can end up with in our giveaway.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 10 April 2013, $735 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. The goal for the first set of bonus items has been reached and we are 74% of that needed for the second group of bonus items. Less than 24 hours are left in this donation drive (ends April 12th at 7am CDT).

D&D Combat Length Poll: How Long Should the Average Combat Take to Play

2013-04-10T14:39:00.000-05:00

My post, WOTC Discovers Typical D&D Players Like Short Combats, a few days ago generated a lot of discussion both here and on Google+. I thought it might be interesting to see how long readers think the average combat in a D&D session should last. Note that I'm talking an average combat encounter in a dungeon room or wilderness area. I'm not asking how long a so-called "boss encounter" (a major combat with big villain the at the end of a series of adventures) should last. If you use minis and grids, please include the minis and grids setup time in the length you select. Make your opinion known by voting in the following poll. Please comment on why you believe the length you selected is optimal if you are so moved.

How long should the average D&D combat last?

[You may need to reload the page to actually see you vote in the graph.)

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 9 April 2013, $425 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 85% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 43% of that needed for the second group of bonus items. Only TWO days left in this donation drive (ends April 11th).

Lords & Wizards Design Plans: Take Two

2013-04-09T14:17:00.000-05:00

After a week of discussion with my Sunday group, I've refined my plans/goals for Lords & Wizards (first listed here). The most general description of the game has not changed> Lords & Wizards will be a modern recreation of that "strange combination of 0e and 1e I used in the late 1970s with some of the ideas from B/X and some of the more interesting ideas from Microlite74 tossed in." My Sunday group has a lot of say with respect to what they'll like to see in this game because they are the ones who have been pushing me to actually do something like this.

The original plan was to take Swords & Wizardry White Box and build the game up a step at a time from where I started in 1975 to where I ended up circa 1981-1982. I started with Brown Box OD&D and just added what I really liked from the OD&D supplements, Holmes Basic, the AD&D books as they were published, B/X as it was published, Arduin, Dragon Magazine articles, White Dwarf articles, C&S, Empire of the Petal Throne, material from Judges Guild, my own ideas for house rules, etc.

The new plan is to trying doing this using the Adventurer Conquerer King System instead of Swords & Wizardry as the underlying core of the game. We'll start with just four classes (Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, and Thief) and add stuff from there, but we'll have the underlying economic and campaigning system from ACKS to draw on. Unlike ACKS, races and classes will be separate, but GMs will have the option to create racial classes if they wish to use them.

Standard races will be provided as will optional popular races from later editions. Guidelines for playing monsters as characters will also be provided.
Class levels range from 1 to 14 (like B/X). There will be two optional possibilities beyond this: epic advancement (gaining proficiencies, special epic abilities, etc.) and attempting to become an immortal.
An ACKS-like economic system will be assumed in the guidelines, but GMs will be free to ignore it if stuff like trade and figuring what is and is not available in towns is more work than it seems worth to them.
Arcane spells up to 6th level can be memorized and cast. Divine spells up to 5th level can be memorized and cast. Higher level spells can only be cast as rituals.
Spell lists will be mainly from 1e.
There will be lots of monsters provided (at least those of core 1e).
The world will have no magic, low magic, normal magic, high magic, and very high magic areas with the magic level of an area affect how spells and other magic work. GMs can easily ignore this by making the entire world "normal magic" (which just uses the standard rules).
Psionics will be included in the rules, but will be optional.
Mutations (think Mutant Future) will be included but are optional. They can be caused by magical radiation (left over from ancient wizard wars) and by being born in a very high magic area. Or those who want to run science fantasy games can have mutations caused by actual radiation. Even if one does not want to use mutations for characters, having lists of mutations and their effects provides a way to quickly create new monsters the players will not be familiar with.
My Body Point/Hit Point system will be used. This will be an "earlier" version than the one used in Microlite74 which works with the full number of spells early edition characters can memorize.
My Background system will be used as will ACKS proficiencies provided I can make them work together.
Science Fantasy play will be supported, but optional. While mixing science fiction and fantasy in campaigns is somewhat uncommon now, it was relatively common in the 1970s.
Adventures in other planes will be possible.

As mentioned before Lords & Wizards will be a major project. I don't expect to have it ready for prime time for 8 to 12 months. Donors to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund will have work in progress access and a beta version will be released to general comment at some point (when it's ready). Progress updates will continue to appear here, of course. Next week, my Sunday group will create their first Lords & Wizards characters. We'll start playing with some slightly modified ACKS rules and develop things from there as we go along.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!
As of 8 April 2013, $415 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 83% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 41% of that needed for the second group of bonus items. Only THREE days left in this donation drive (ends April 11th).

New Random Wizard TSR Interview: David Cook

2013-04-08T19:44:00.000-05:00

Random Wizard has done another great interview with a former TSR employee, David "Zeb" Cook this time. The topics include Basic/Expert D&D, X1 Isle of Dread, Tom Moldvay, Conan RPG, Indiana Jones RPG, player feedback surveys during the design of 2e, Ruins of Adventure, SSI, and more computer games.

David Cook Interview

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 8 April 2013, $415 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 83% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 41% of that needed for the second group of bonus items. Only FOUR days left in this donation drive (ends April 11th).

Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive Extended to April 11

2013-04-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

The Brown Box/Wee warriors donation drive has been extended through Thursday, April 11th. Unfortunately, it turned none of my Sunday Game players were available during the week to help with/supervise determining who gets donor giveaway items. If I was going to have to wait until next Sunday to draw the lucky giveawy item winners, I figured I might as well extend the drive a few days. If you are wondering why I don't extend it to Saturday if the drawings will be Sunday, it's because I need a couple of days to carefully go through the donations a couple of times and make sure everyone who donated gets the right number of chances at the giveaway items.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 7 April 2013, $290 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 58% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 29% of that needed for the second group of bonus items. Only FOUR days left in this donation drive.

Lords & Wizards and Adventurer Conqueror King?

2013-04-05T14:02:00.000-05:00

I have two players in my Sunday game who really like some of the ideas in the Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) from Autarch. They have been trying to talk me into using more ideas and material from it in Lords & Wizards than just the domain and campaigning material I have been playing to use. They would like to see me start with ACKS and use it to rebuilt the 0e/1e mix I often ran in the 1977-1982 era.

I'll be honest, there are a number of things I like about ACKS. Like B/X, it only goes to level 14 which means it bypasses many of the high level play problems of 0e and 1e. It provides a relatively easy way to create a campaign world than hangs together economically (even with the piles of treasure adventurers add to the economy) while allowing PCs to engage in trade if they wish which was always a lot of fun in Traveller. Campaigning and domains are built in to the system. It is easy to create classes and spells that fit the system with the rules in the ACKS Player's Companion.

However, there are also things I do not like about ACKS.

The proficiency system has the "feat problem" of sometimes limiting what anyone should be able to try to do to those who took the proficiency (e.g. the Trapping proficiency). One can remove the proficiency system completely, but doing so makes the game less ACKS and more B/X. However, trying to fit proficiencies on top of by Class/Background task resolution system would probably be awkward.

The spell building rules are nice for player created spells, but they do not work as well for standard spells which often have powerful spells like Sleep at a lower level than their point cost under the build system would place them. The ACKS build system does admit this and assumes that such spells are at lower levels than they should be because the people who created them long ago made breakthroughs when they were researching them. The main problem I would have with this, however, is using 1e spells. I'm really not interested in trying to figure the point costs for each and every one of them and possibly changing the levels of some from what 1e used. However, if I don't do this, I suspect there would be loud complaints from some quarters.

I do not like the way ACKS handles "below zero" HP. Replacing this with my HP/Body Point system would not be hard, however.

While I love the idea of racial classes, especially the multiple classes that ACKS allows, in practice it is a pain in the ass to have to create two or three classes for each race for each campaign setting. For example, none of the non-human classes in ACKS would really fit the elves or dwarves in my Arn setting or my Hidden Valley setting. They might work for my Wilderlands campaign, provided no one minded that they were not quite how I have portrayed either race in the campaign so far. In practice I find that a separate races and classes are far less work for the GM. If I base Lords & Wizards on ACKS, the racial classes would disappear. However, races might have special racial proficiencies they could take than other races could not, however.

I'm not sure I like the ACKS attack throw and AC systems. They are no different from the standard TSR to-hit system or the modern Ascending AC system in effect, but they seem less compatible than either of the other two standard systems with TSR and OSR adventures.

In the end, I'm torn. I really like the idea of using ACKS to build Lords & Wizards on, but I'm not sure how well it would work out in practice. I'm sure the resulting game would work fine in play, but I'm afraid that many people would be expecting it to be more ACKS-like than it would end likely up being: in the end Lords & Wizards would not look or play much like ACKS (nor will like look or play much like S&W or Labyrinth Lord which are the other options for "starting rules"). I haven't made any final decision one way or another yet. I'm carefully re-reading the ACKS core rules and Player's Companion with an eye to seeing what could and could not be easily changed.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 5 April 2013, $225 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 45% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 23% of that needed for the second group of bonus items. Only FOUR days left in this donation drive.

WOTC Discovers Typical D&D Players Like Short Combats

2013-04-03T21:00:00.000-05:00

Amazing Stories has an interview with Mike Mearls talking about D&D Next. From one of Mike's comments it seems that WOTC has finally learned what many players have know for years: Most players like fast combats. In the interview, Mike says:

What we found through the playtest process, though, was that people like quick fights. They like them a lot, it turns out. A battle is part of the game, a point of resolution in the grander scheme of things, not the entire point of the game. That kind of philosophical revelation has been really big for us in working on the game. We might’ve ended up spending weeks adding detail to the combat system, never realizing that the typical D&D player simply wasn’t interested in that level of detail.

I'm not sure how the designers of 3.x and 4e ever came to the conclusion that most D&D players want combats that take 45 minutes or more. That was always one of the features of TSR D&D, combats were abstract and fast (unless playing with optional rules like those in the 2e Player's Option books). Short combats mean that there is more time in a session for non-combat activities like exploration and make it possible to have character classes that are not good in combat without their players getting bored every time a combat takes place. Gary Gygax even wrote about this in an article "The Melee in D&D" in The Dragon #24 (April 1979):

The game is one of adventure, though, and combats of protected nature (several hours minimum of six or more player characters are considered involved against one or more opponents each) are undesirable, as the majority of participants are most definitely not miniature battle game enthusiasts....

Obviously, much of the excitement and action is not found in melee....

As melee combat is so common an occurrence during the course of each adventure, brevity, equitability, and options must be carefully balanced...

It reflects actual combat reasonably, for weaponry, armor (protection and speed and magical factors), skill level, and allows for a limited amount of choice as to attacking or defending. It does not require participants to keep track of more than a minimal amount of information, it is quite fast, and it does not place undue burden upon the Dungeon Master. It allows those involved in combat to opt to retire if they are taking too much damage — although this does not necessarily guarantee that they will succeed or that the opponents will not strike a telling blow prior to such retreat....

The only thing I can think of to explain the long combats in 3.x and 4e is that either the designers really liked combat or they were designing the games like they were computer RPGs where combat is 90% or more of the game (at least in most computer rpgs). I'm just glad they seem to have discovered that many -- if not most -- D&D players really prefer short combats. I just how this will be reflected in the final version of D&D Next. Because it it does not feature short combats that do not require a lot of work on the part of the players and the GM, I know many people will pass on it. Yes, those who want and enjoy long, detailed encounters that are tactical challenges will probably object loudly, but WOTC needs to satisfy the typical player if D&D Next is to have much chance of real success, even if the typical player is seldom heard from in online forums.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 3 April 2013, $160 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 32% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 16% of that needed for the second group of bonus items.

Early Plans for my Next Free RPG: Lords & Wizards

2013-04-02T10:01:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned about six weeks ago, my next free RPG project will be Lords & Wizards: a game combining that "strange combination of 0e and 1e I used in the late 1970s" with some of the ideas from B/X and some of the more interesting ideas from Microlite74. Now that all my promised Microlite74 projects have been completed, I'm ready to begin serious work on Lords & Wizards. Here are some of my plans for the Lords & Wizards system. I'm open to comments and suggestions as well.

Separate races and classes.
Class levels range from 1 to 14 (like B/X). There might be some type of "epic advancement after that, but this is undecided.
Arcane spells up to 6th level can be memorized and cast. Divine spells up to 5th level can be memorized and cast. Higher level spells can only be cast as rituals.
Spell lists will be mainly from 1e.
There will be lots of monsters provided (at least those of core 1e).
The world will have no magic, low magic, normal magic, high magic, and very high magic areas with the magic level of an area affect how spells and other magic work. GMs can easily ignore this by making the entire world "normal magic" (which just uses the standard rules).
Psionics will be included in the rules, but will be optional.
Mutations (think Mutant Future) will be included but are optional. They can be caused by magical radiation (left over from ancient wizard wars) and by being born in a very high magic area. Or those who want to run science fantasy games can have mutations caused by actual radiation. Even if one does not want to use mutations for characters, having lists of mutations and their effects provides a way to quickly create new monsters the players will not be familiar with.
My Body Point/Hit Point system will be used.
My Background system will be used.
Science Fantasy play will be supported, but optional. While mixing science fiction and fantasy in campaigns is somewhat uncommon now, it was relatively common in the 1970s.

Lords & Wizards will be a major project. I don't expect to have it ready for prime time for 8 to 12 months. Donors to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund will have work in progress access and a beta version will be released to general comment at some point (when it's ready). Progress updates will appear here, of course.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 1 April 2013, $135 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 27% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 13% of that needed for the second group of bonus items.

Another TSR Interview: Skip Williams

2013-03-31T13:30:00.001-05:00

Random Wizard has done another good interview with a former TSR employee. This time its Skip Williams talking about his first adventure, his early days at TSR, his thoughts on 4th edition, his recent work for WotC, and what he has been up to lately.

Skip Williams Interview

Skip worked on a lot of 2e and 3e stuff I really did not like, but the interview is an interesting read.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 30 March 2013, $135 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 27% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 13% of that needed for the second group of bonus items.

Free Delving Deeper Reference Rules (Version 2) are Now Available

2013-03-30T12:41:00.001-05:00

Immersive Ink has released the second version of their Delving Deeper reference rules -- a 0e White Box clone that many consider to be the closest set of published retroclone rules to the "three little books" that came in the 0e White Box. This new version incorporates the four pages of version 1 errata released last October into the actual rules.

Delving Deeper is a very nice set of 0e retroclone rules. It is very close clone of the White Box set of rules, even to being published in three booklets. One major addition is the inclusion of an optional thief class. Of course, like every other 0e retroclone out there, the authors cannot help but put their personal interpretation of 0e's less clear rules and obvious omissions into their game, but they were obviously trying to stay very close to the original edition rules.

Delving Deeper is free to download (and even has art, unlike the free versions of some retroclones) and it is almost entirely open game content under the OGL. If you are interested in 0e, Delving Deeper is well worth the download and provides a third choice in the 0e White Box retroclone world, the other major free options being Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox and my own Microlite74 Basic.

Free Download of Delving Deeper from RPGNow

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 30 March 2013, $135 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 27% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 13% of that needed for the second group of bonus items.

New OSR Items for my Collection

2013-03-28T20:23:00.000-05:00

I don't allow my players to buy me Christmas presents because I can't afford to give them any (due to cancer bills and the fact that my wife can no longer work but does not qualify for disability). However, they decided to give me an anniversary present (right) this year. A large collection old school gaming PDFs:

Tome of Horrors Complete - S&W Edition
Monstrosities (also for S&W)
MCMLXXV
Grimmsgate
Blood & Treasure
Stonehell Dungeon
Barrowmaze
Arrows of Indra
A1 Lair of the Goblin King
A2 Lost Treasure of Actzimotal
A3 Hunt for the Ogre Lord
A4 Rise of the Bloodwolf

I have to say from brief glances through these that I am very impressed with Tome of Horrors Complete and Monstrosities. These are very nice monster collections, and entirely OGL as well. Expect to see some of these monsters in Lords & Wizards and in future Microlite74 Companions. I'm also quite impressed with Blood & Treasure. It's a old school "retroclone" written by John Stater (probably best known for Land of Nod) which I had completely missed up until now. I'm looking forward to reading Arrows of Indra, RPGPundit's latest game set in mythic India.

I'd like to thank all the Sunday Game folks for this "anniversary present". Look forward to seeing some of this material in future sessions, especially all those monsters.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive updated with BONUS giveaway items is on. 12 standard giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive (updated with MORE donor giveaway items for Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

As of 28 March 2013, $90 has been donated toward the Bonus Items. 18% of that needed for the first set of bonus items and 9% of that needed for the second group of bonus items.

Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive Updated (with MORE donor giveaway items)

2013-03-26T09:27:00.001-05:00

This is a update to the Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors) post. If you need more info, please check there. This update adds some new donor giveaway items, among other things.

As most readers know, my wife had oral cancer and that I worked on the original Microlite74 as way to cope during her recovery from 6 weeks of radiation treatment in 2008. We are some of the 40 to 50 million people in the US who do not have health insurance and do not qualify for government aid as we live in Texas and have no children. The cancer treatments and related expenses have cost over $120,000 so far. While almost three-quarters of this has been absorbed by hospital foundations or paid by previous fund drives, monthly payments by us, and the like, we still owe quite a bit. Worse, last month, my wife developed an open sore on her tongue that would not go away. It turned out to be nothing more than a sore (which is now slowly fading away), but it triggered over $1700 in tests and doctor visits. It was a very stressful month and left us with no savings and without money to pay some of our basic bills this month.

Everyone who donates anything at all (even a dollar) to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund gets access to a few special downloads (like pdfs of two 1970s D&D fanzines I edited, a special edition of Microlite74, and more) as described on the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund web page as well as in progress draft downloads of my current projects). However, what you are probably most interested in are the special donor goodies....

Special Donor Goodies for the Brown Box/Wee Warriors RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund Drive (Mainly Original D&D Items)

Anyone who donates during the next month -- now through April 8 11, 2013 -- will be eligible for some extra goodies in addition to the special downloads everyone who donates gets. The following was the original list of items that will be given away:

TSR OD&D Brown Box, 3rd printing OD&D Brown Box 3rd printing (plus the 4 supplements each a 1st printings: Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, and Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes)
Guidon Games Chainmail (2nd Edition, goldenrod cover)
Wee Warriors Character Archaic (TSR distributed)
Wee Warriors Palace of the Vampire Queen (TSR distributed)
Wee Warriors The Dwarven Glory (TSR distributed)
Wee Warriors The Endless Dungeon
Wee Warriors Misty Isles
TSR The Strategic Preview #3-6
TSR The Strategic Review #1-7
TSR Dungeon Geomorphs #1, #2, #3
TSR Outdoor Geomorphs
TSR Monster & Treasure Assortment #1, #2, #3

I've included links to these items on the Tome of Treasures (RPGGeek for the magazines) as some of these items are rare enough that you may not have heard of them. Heck, I had not heard of The Strategic Preview until I saw them in one of the boxes from Jay. The Acaeum has good information as well, but it is more focused on collectible value/printing differences than on what the item actually is about.

The following additional items will be given away provided an additional $500 is donated between now and the end of this donation drive on April ~~8th~~ 11th:

Guidon Games Chainmail 1st printing signed by Gygax and Perrin, good condition (donated by John C.)
TSR Empire of the Petal Throne boxed set signed by Barker, excellent condition (donated by John C.)

The following additional items will be given away provided an additional $1000 is donated between now and the end of this donation drive on April ~~8th~~ 11th:

To The Aid of Falx (1981 Tournament printing) signed by Frank Mentzer, good condition (donated by John C.)
Daystar West Pharaoh (1980) signed by Laura and Tracy Hickman, good condition (donated by John C.)

These items will be given away to first to high donors (the high donor gets his choice of 3 items, the second highest donor gets his choice of two items from those remaining, the third highest donor gets his choice of one item from those remaining). Any ties will be broken with TSR/OD&D trivia questions. The remaining 6 (or more, if John C.'s goals are meet) items will be raffled off: for every $10 a person donates, they will receive one chance for each item in this raffle. In addition, there will be a few additional "surprise items" raffled off. None of these surprise items are directly related to D&D.

I'd like to thank John C. for offering the new donor items and my Sunday Game players for suggesting the surprise items and donating a few of them.

The combination of items for the three highest donors and raffled items should give everyone a chance at a decent giveaway item, even if they can't afford to donate a lot. As always, everyone who donates any amount (even just a dollar) gets access to these special PDF downloads: The Grimoire #1, The Grimoire #2, Microlite74 2.0 Special Edition, Hidden Valley House Rules (B/X D&D), and more and access to the donor area of the new RetroRoleplaying Forum.

If you would like to help but cannot make a donation, please help spread the word around the blogsphere (and other places). In fact, if you make a post to your blog talking about this fundraising drive and post a link to your post in a comment to this post, we'll give you one entry in the raffle. Note: Your blog will have to have some way for us to email you if you get lucky or will will not be able to get your prize to you. I still have not been able to pass Mind Reading 101.

To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and possibly the above mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. My apologies for having to ask for donations and my heartfelt thanks to everyone who donates. If you cannot donate but wish to help, please spread the word about my request and offer. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Ascending AC is Old School: A Rant

2013-03-23T14:27:00.000-05:00

I've never understood the hatred some old school players have for ascending armor class any more than I understood the hatred some non-old school players have for descending armor class and/or THAC0. Ascending AC, descending AC with hit tables or descending AC with THAC0 are mathematically equivalent. That is, they all give exactly the same chance to hit for a given class, level, and target's armor class.

I saw all of these methods (and others) used back in the 1970s and early 1980s via house rules. However, I sometimes have trouble convincing people that ascending AC and attack bonuses were ever used back in the days when "old school" was the only school in town. Yesterday I was going through some old RPG magazines and I happened to look at the second part of a variant D&D combat article by John T. Sapienza, Jr. in Different Worlds #7 (the April/May 1980 issue). The first part of the article in the previous issue had tried to regularize the combat charts by using 1D100 instead of 1D20 for attack rolls, as it would allow fighters to improve their attack roll every level -- yet another example of the many different systems different campaigns used.

The second part closed by trying modify the d20 tables to provide at least some of the benefits of the previous issue's D100 system for those who wanted to continue to roll D20s in combat. The article provides such as system then goes on to say:

In fact, under this system it is possible to eliminate the Armor Class number system entirely. You would refer to your armor by its Armor Number: Clothing 10, Padding 11, Leather 12, Cuirboilli 13, Chainmail 14....

Do those Armor Numbers look familiar? They should as they are the same numbers used for Armor Class in the 3.x ascending AC system. Hits were determined by rolling a D20 and added one's Combat Class number to the roll and comparing it to the Armor Number, if the modified number rolled was greater than or equal to the target's Armor Number, the attack resulted in a hit. This "Combat Class number" and the Base Attack Bonus of 3.x are simply two different names for the same thing.

Sapienza even pointed out that this system was...

...a more rational system, since its numbers are directly related to combat function, and its pluses and minuses are actually added or subtracted (respectively) to or from the Armor Number, unlike the Armor Class system (in which a plus is actually subtracted from the Armor Class number, and a minus is actually added to the Armor Class number).

There you have it. Whether you like ascending AC or hate it, ascending AC really isn't a 3.x invention given that the basic system was printed in an article in a professional RPG publication in 1980. The point of this rant isn't that ascending AC is old school so old school players should not object to using it, but that there really was a huge variety in variant D&D rules in the first ten years or so of play and that claiming that ascending AC, spell points, or whatever else you do not personally like would have been considered badwrongfun/"not really D&D" by most D&D players back then simply is not true. Very little was considered "not really D&D" by most players at the time. Trying to claim otherwise is just as much revisionist history as 4e players trying to claim that OD&D combat was fought on grids with minis by most players.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome Reviewed

2013-03-19T14:02:00.000-05:00

I was going through my RSS feed today and discovered that JB has already written a review of Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome at his B/X Blackrazor blog. Go and give it a read -- and take a look at some of his other blog posts. B/X Blackrazor is one of my favorite blogs. There's a lot of good stuff there.

Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome (House Rules for 0e) Available For Free Download

2013-03-17T14:41:00.000-05:00

Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome: House Rules for 0e Games is now available for free download. I'll probably find a few more typos and other minor issues over the next week, if I find enough, I'll release a version 1.01 later in the month. But I don't expect to find anything truly major -- at least I hope I don't.

Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome: House Rules for 0e Games is written for use with any 0e game, the original TSR 1974 edition, Swords & Wizardry, etc. It will probably also work with only minor changes for B/X-based editions. The PDF file is can be printed as a 40 page booklet using Acrobat Reader's booklet printing feature. Here's the blurb from the back cover of Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome: House Rules for 0e Games:

Tarnhelm’s Terrible Tome is a set of house rules for the original 1974 (0e) version of the world’s most popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game (and modern clones, like Swords & Wizardry). These house rules are modern renditions of the house rules the author used with his original edition games in the 1970s.

Some of house rules included:

• A simple “skills” system based on class and background instead of lists of skills
• A Hit Point/Body Point system where Hit Points represent fatigue and Body Points represent actual wounds.
• Ritual Magic
• An alternate alignment system
• Critical Hits and Critical misses
• A class based weapon damage system that ends class weapon restrictions.
• An optional Armor system that ends class restrictions on wearing armor
• An optional class: the Mnemonic Mage
• Optional Divine Intervention rules

This digest-sized edition of Tarnhelm’s Terrible Tome is designed to be printed double-sided using the booklet-printing feature of Adobe Acrobat, the pages can be folded and stapled to create a “0e” style digest-sized booklet.

You can download a free copy of Tarnhelm’s Terrible Tome from this Mediafire link. It's a 40 page PDF. The file size is just over 1 meg.

Download Tarnhelm’s Terrible Tome

Adding the Mnemonic Mage Class to Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome

2013-03-15T21:41:00.002-05:00

Mazirian stroked his chin. Apparently he must capture the girl himself. Later, when black night lay across the forest, he would seek through his books for spell to guard him through the unpredictable glades. They would be poignant corrosive spells, of such nature that one would daunt the brain of an ordinary man and two render him mad. Mazirian, by dint of stringent exercise, could encompass four of the most formidable, or six of the lesser spells.

--- Jack Vance, The Dying Earth, Chapter 2: "Mazirian the Magician"

Standard magic in TSR D&D is based loosely on the way magic works in The Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance (and others) in that casters must memorize their spells and they forget them when cast. However, the spells in D&D are generally weaker than those in Vance's stories, there were many more "levels" of spells, and powerful caster's could memorize large numbers of them. When we switched to a spell point system with my Body Point and Hit Point rules, one of my players, who was a Dying Earth fan, suggested adding a separate class, the Mnemonic Mage, which would be somewhat closer to Vance's actual system as an alternative magic-user. After comparing the mages in The Dying Earth (at least those where the stories mentioned the number of spells they could hold in their minds), we decided that Mazirian was an 11th level character and built the system around that. Turning D&D's nine levels of spells into two simply did not work, so we ended up with five.

Amazingly, the class worked well. Mnemonic mages could memorize only a very small number of spells, but they had access to more powerful spells right off the bat -- assuming they had them in their spell books, of course. Unfortunately, the class would probably not be popular among modern D&D players as a Mnemonic mage runs out of spells very quickly if played like a combat machine and would therefore be considered "useless" by many and require a "15 minute workday" to be playable. Old school players should not have this problem so I've decided to include this class in the Optional Rules section of Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome. The complete version will be there, but here is the essence of the spell memorization part of the system.

A Mnemonic Mage has his level + 1 memory slots.

Spells are divided into groups that require different numbers of memory slots to hold in memory:

Minor Spells - 1 memory slot (1st and 2nd level magic-user spells)
Lesser Spells - 2 memory slots (3rd and 4th level magic-user spells)
Greater Spells - 3 memory slots (5th and 6th level magic-user spells)
Extraordinary Spells - 5 memory slots (7th and 8th level magic-user spells)
Most Extraordinary spells - 10 memory slots (9th level magic-user spells)

Assuming Mazirian is 11th level in this system, he would have 12 memory slots which would allow his mind to hold 4 Greater Spells or 6 Lesser spells -- just as he can in Vance's story.

1st level mages start with spell books holding 3 minor, 2 lesser, and 1 greater spell. The player may select two of the minor spells, the others are selected by the GM by whatever method he wishes. Of course, they only have 2 memory slots at first level so their minds can only hold 2 minor or one lesser spell.

Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome for 0e: Planned Contents

2013-03-15T13:53:00.001-05:00

As mentioned in this post, Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome will be a free PDF supplement for 0e and 0e retroclones. Here's a list of the planned contents:

Characters

General Stat Bonus
Arcane Caster Special Abilities
Divine Caster Special Abilities
Backgrounds
Skills
Alignment
Body Points, Hit Points, and Healing

Magic

Spell Knowledge
Direct Spell Casting
Ritual Magic
Counterspells

Combat

Combat Stance
Critical Hits
Critical Misses
Combat Maneuvers
Special Combat Situations
Special Shield Defense
Weapon Damage

Monsters

Monster Reactions
Mooks (aka "Cannon Fodder")

Optional Rules

Character Goals and Personality Traits
Strike Speed Initiative and Action Order
Armor for Everyone
Deities and Divine Intervention

Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome is still on schedule for release early next week (late Sunday is still the target date).