Do you listen to the Vintage RPG podcast, dear reader? Do you follow VintageRPG on Instagram? If you are reading this blog, the chances are good that you do both of those things. But, in case you have somehow never come across it, the podcast is presented by Stu Horvath and John “Hambone” McGuire. On it the lads chat about lots of RPG related subjects. As the name implies, they do talk about older games, like Fighting Fantasy and Beyond the Supernatural, which, as a gamer of a certain vintage, I very much appreciate. But many of the most interesting episodes involve newer games like Swyvers. They often have fascinating interviews with game makers. Their conversation with Swyvers creators, Luke Gearing and David Hoskins, convinced me to back the project and I’m so glad I did!
And on Instagram, Stu posts at least five days a week with details of old modules, game systems, books, accessories etc. It’s the exact kind of nostalgia I can enjoy. I am of the general opinion that most types of nostalgia are just gateway drugs to the sort of opinions that lead many people to vote for tangerine demagogues. But, Stu is under no illusions. He takes a critical look at each of the products he features and calls it out when they are problematic, poor quality or just nasty.
The point is, Vintage RPG is a wonderful source for news on the RPG scene, historical gaming facts and deep delves and has acted as an outlet for game creators and enthusiasts to push themselves, their work and their passions.
A webring (or web ring) is a collection of websites linked together in a circular structure, and usually organized around a specific theme, often educational or social
Woodpaneled
The Woodpaneled Webring was founded by Stu to help those participating in it to have an internet experience that is not entirely governed by the algorithms of social media companies or the advertisement driven peccadilloes of search engines. He put the call out on the show for artists, writers and designers with websites related in some way to a broad theme. Most of the sites that are part of the ring now are to do with RPGs or at least RPG-adjacent but some are more broadly about culture and art. Here is a link to the a short piece Stu wrote to explain why he started this thing. He explains it far better than I could, especially as I am pretty sure I have a very different relationship with wood panelling than he does!
Now, I don’t have much of a presence on social media. I have an Instagram account that I am fairly active on and I just started a Bluesky account @thedicepool.bsky.social which I have yet to even post on. I gave up on Facebook many years ago for the same reasons that I view nostalgia with suspicion, and I abandoned Twitter when the fash started to take over. Basically, the idea of a smaller, slower, less shouty and more contemplative internet appealed greatly to me. I thought this sounded like a perfect home for The Dice Pool, to be honest. So I contacted Stu to ask him about joining and he was so enthusiastic and sound about it! And so helpful. I am not terribly experienced when it comes to the technical side of running this website so I needed his assistance to jury-rig a solution to allow me to embed the Woodpaneled widget that you can see at the top of my main page (I am working on getting that to appear on every page. Like I said, I’m more of a tortoise than a hare when it comes to the backend stuff, but I’ll get there in the end.)
So, dear reader, I want to encourage you to go hit those “Next” and “Previous” buttons on the widget and have a dive into other sites on the webring. There are some fascinating and creative people involved!
I thought I would play Ravenloft around Halloween this year. My friend returned all my Ravenloft books and boxed sets to me back in the spring after about 25 years, and since then I have been thinking it would be cool to run something in the Domain of Dread as a Halloween one-shot. But, in the meantime, I have played a lot of different games, mostly one-shots, mostly a lot easier to play in that format than any version of D&D. So I did consider starting a campaign or a multi-session adventure, but, to be honest, I didn’t have it in me to do all the reading and conversion that was necessary. I may be playing more RPGs than I ever have before in my life but that has an unlooked for side-effect: I have less time to prepare for games! This is a dilemma that has been exacerbated by my blog schedule and I have been thinking that I might have to make a change there too. I am switching to posting once every three days for the foreseeable future.
The Demiplane of Dread
So, I am not talking about the original Ravenloft adventure from AD&D 1st Edition or the Curse of Strahd released for 5E, but the setting released by TSR for AD&D 2nd Edition in 1990. It is by Bruce Nesmith and Andria Hayday. I think I have mentioned in another post that my friends and I played most of our AD&D in the Dark Sun setting but I would imagine Ravenloft comes a close second. I just loved having them create regular old characters in my home-brewed standard fantasy world and then dumping them, unceremoniously and with no warning through the mists into the forests of Barovia or the mountains of Forlorn and hitting them with monsters that drained levels and abilities and where there was no escape from he darkness and the terror. Although, I confess, the games were probably not very terrifying. I did my best, but I have always found horror a difficult genre to emulate around the table, especially with a system like D&D. The authors did their best to assist the Ravenloft DM with sections in the main book about the “Techniques of Terror,” where they discuss “Assaults on the Mind,” “Assaults on the Body,” “A Villain in Control,” and that sort of thing. But, the fact was, we were a gang of teenaged boys who mostly just wanted to hit things until they died so those were usually the kinds of adventures we got.
Looking at it from a more mature standpoint now, I would love to try to run it with a real sense of gothic horror. I think I am better equipped now to attempt it. Although I still think it would be a challenge and I might refrain from running it in a D&D-like system. Why? Well, the products for Ravenloft, while not all gold, are still some of the highest quality items I think TSR produced. Just look at all these handouts! Each one of them has something useful on the back of a beautifully illustrated card.
5E products are usually produced to a high standard, but they don’t have the variety and versatility that the 2nd Edition boxed sets did. They also don’t have the quality or usefulness of content. These boxes and sourcebooks are stuffed with useable materials; details on lands, villains, monsters, new spells, effects, encounter tables, maps, maps, maps. 5E setting guides of late, excepting maybe Planescape are very short on this sort of detail.
Adventures in Ravenloft
I usually wrote my own adventures back in the day. Or at least I would pick and choose liberally from the pre-written modules and combine them with my own scribblings to make them fit into an overarching campaign. Or that’s what I told myself I was doing. I have a funny feeling that, mostly, I was just trying o murder the PCs. This is another aspect of my style that has, thankfully, changed, since the good old days.
I do have a few Ravenloft adventures that might be fun to convert or even to just run in the original 2nd Edition ruleset.
Feast of Goblyns is a very flexible module that is designed to be run for characters of levels 4 to 7. It is presented in a format that allows many different paths to be taken through it, with the PCs potentially ignoring some major and minor plots depending on how they decide to play it. This one was designed to be the adventure that draws PCs into the Demiplane, which is always fun. I think I remember playing parts of this module but my memory is not good enough to recall which parts. At 96 pages, though, it would require a bit of commitment to play through the whole thing.
From the Shadows is written for rather high level characters, levels 9 to 12. It is based around the plots of Azalin the lich, lord of the domain of Darkon and his eternal conflict with Strahd Von Zarovich, famed ruler of Barovia and OG Ravenloft BBEG. A great deal of it takes place in Castle Avernus, the lich’s home, and that is pretty cool. I definitely played this but I don’t think the characters survived the whole way through.
Finally, I have the Book of Crypts, which is similar to the Book of Lairs but has 8 full adventures in it! This seems the most suitable for a shorter game or campaign and I might just take a look at running something from here before the spooky season is fully through.
Dear reader, have you ever played this version of Ravenloft? Do you yearn for the mists? Or would you rather play a game actually made for horror?
I’m sure those of you who have been around for a while are aware of how much I enjoy mucking around with my D&D campaign. It is a Spelljammer campaign of the 5E variety and it has been running for quite some time. About 25 sessions, I think. That makes it one of the longest running campaigns I have ever had. That’s probably what makes me want to keep messing with it. A while ago, I introduced the very FitD idea of Engagement rolls before big jobs/dungeons and that has worked pretty well. I also brought in the adversity token, which have come in handy for our heroes in a few clutch moments, let me tell you!
1E Throwback
This post is not so much introducing yet another rules hack or even anything home-brew. It’s more about utilising a style of play that went out of fashion in D&D a long time ago. Hexcrawling! A couple of the oldest D&D publications I own are from AD&D 1st Edition. One of those is UK5 Eye of the Serpent, written by Graeme Morris and released in 1984. This was designed for one DM and one PC! Specifically, it was made to be the first adventure for a druid, ranger or monk character. This is besides the point. I just thought it was unusual. Also, it reminds me of a Troika! adventure I just read, The Hand of God, mainly because it starts much the same way, with the characters being abducted by a powerful winged creature and dumped in their nest at the top of something very, very high up.
Anyway, the point is the hex map of the outdoor region, Hardway Mountain (the name of which, I think we can all agree, is a little on the nose.) Now, the use of this map was incredibly restricted in the text. If your PC was playing a druid, not only did they have to have a prescribed set of three NPCs with them, they should also be forced to take a particular selection of the marked “routings.” These would be distinct from the routings a ranger or monk character would be forced down. You can see this laid out in the unfeasibly complicated two-page spread below.
Now, I think this is really interesting in comparison to what you might deem a hexcrawl style game today. I think most OSR games that use a hex map are thinking along the lines of open-world or sandbox play where you go to a certain hex on the map to explore, with the understanding that the whole thing will be open to your PCs. There might be geographical or other obstacles they have to overcome but that’s up to them, they can either try them out or forget about them.
When it comes to encounters, places of interest, etc. a lot of the time these will be generated randomly and the GM is discovering along with the players in many cases. Even if the GM is the one who came up with the encounter table they’re rolling on, they are not to know what the roll will turn up in the moment or what the PCs will do with them! I realise I am probably teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but I want to point out that, although the hexcrawl is a pretty old school style, it wasn’t always necessarily as free a style as it is generally taken to be today.
One last thing. That Eye of the Serpent module has some fantastic art by Tim Sell. Just check these out.
Hexing the Rock
The Spelljammer campaign may have gotten a bit bogged down on the Rock of Bral. Why? Is it because it is the only location described at all in the Spelljammer 5E set? Maybe. Is it because all the plot threads of the campaign led there? Partly. Is it because it takes a life age of the earth to get through a round of 5E combat? That’s a distinct possibility. Anyway, the crew have spent a lot of time exploring, murdering, stealing, negotiating, shopping, drinking and dating on the topside of the Rock already. But one of them has had a literal ooze-heart pulling them to the underside since they got there and they finally made it down. Now, to get them there, I invented a little something I like to call the Shaft of Bral. Stop sniggering! It is a shaft of pure void half a mile wide through which you can reach not just the top and under sides of the Rock but everything in between too. So they took a little row-boat called a spell-rudder down to the bottom and now they are crawling through the hexes underneath. I threw a few random encounters at them on the way down as well. I invented a few encounters for the Shaft of Bral and put them in a d6 table. I got the players to roll for those and they had fun getting hit by another spell-rudder in a hit-and-run and avoiding the sickly air of a boat full of corpses on their way down.
So far, using the encounter table in Boo’s Astral Menagerie (the Spelljammer Monster Manual,) I have been unimpressed. The first time I used it they got an encounter with a ship of aggressive Vampirates. Then there was a fight that lasted three full sessions. It wasn’t all bad, it just derailed things in a less than ideal way. So, I thought I would just make my own encounter tables from now on.
Once they were finally on the Underside of the Rock, I had to think about how I was going to handle it. It is a very large area, made up largely of farmland and forest and they were there to find one wee gnome. I could have just given them directions, but I wanted it to feel like they were exploring and finding their own way, so I took the map of the Underside of Bral and popped it into Roll 20. We are playing this game online so this worked out well. Then I set the map layer to have a hex grid, instead of the standard square one. Now, as they travel, each time they pass from one hex to another, we roll for an encounter. Some of these encounters are designed to beneficial, some are quite the opposite and others are what they make of them. They have been using their own skills, abilities and traits to push on towards their goals while getting the impression of uncovering things about this place as they move through it. I’m not sure how the creators of this version of the Rock imagined people using this map. Maybe this is exactly what they thought we would do! But, I doubt it. It doesn’t feel as though any thought went into that, in fact. As it is with so many recent D&D 5E products, you are given the bare minimum and expected to figure the rest out for yourself. Even a little advice to go along with the map would have been useful. I mean, even Eye of the Serpent did that in 1984.
Anyway, the last session we had was one of these hex crawl sessions and I can’t remember a funnier time. Genuinely laughed the whole way through. Now, I am incredibly loathe to take any credit for that. It was entirely the hilarious antics of the fantastic players I am blessed with. A couple of highlights:
Our Giff Charisma-Fighter/Paladin climbing a tree to hide from a patrol with his trousers ‘round his ankles because he thought his hairy grey arse-cheeks would help disguise him as a bunch of coconuts (didn’t work, it was an oak tree.)
Encountering a bunch of Hadozee who were on the run from the nearby prison but didn’t know how to escape the Underside. The party told them all about the secret hatch in that stump over there which led to the Shaft of Bral. What’s that? Do we have a boat there? Yep! On, ok, bye then! Good luck in the shaft!
Herbert Gũsfacher, ornithologist, the latest identity adopted by the party’s resident illusionist, Balthazar.
Gary, Son of Gary. Oh, are you based in the Garrison, Mr Gary-son? No, the Citadel, actually.
Anyway, these random encounters did help along the good times and, I hope, gave the players a sense of active exploration. They haven’t found what they were looking for yet (it’s Eccta, the plasmoid Mum) So I can’t go into any detail about what is in store but I will be using a lot more of my own home made hexcrawls and random encounter tables, that’s for sure.
Here’s what we’ve got so far, mainly from the post two days ago. The only thing I managed to do yesterday, pretty much was spend an inordinate amount of time waffling about all the classes and finally, roll a die to find out which one she was going to be. Turned out, it was Illusionist:
Name: Rezina
Pronouns: she/her
Race: Halfling
Class: Illusionist
Ability Scores:
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 18
Constitution: 18
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 18
Charisma: 9
3ft 3in tall
59lbs in weight
41 years of age
Let’s move this along, shall we?
So, let’s get her sorted, remembering that she starts at 3rd level. I found a form-fillable AD&D 2nd Ed character sheet online so I am going to go down through that, addressing each element I need to consider since neither the PHB nor the Dark Sun Rules Book have anything so prosaic as a step by step guide on character creation.
Preserver or Defiler?
As it turns out, the first thing to decide is not on the character sheet which was meant for a more generic setting. I like our little Rezina and I don’t think it would be in keeping with the Halfling culture to have her defiling the land with her spells so I am going to make her a Preserver for the purposes of casting spells.
Alignment
I’ve always liked the Chaotic Good alignment and it seems to fit our little Preserver Illusionist, in that she doesn’t ascribe to the rules and laws of the sorcerer-kings and she would rather project benevolence both onto and into the world around her.
Patron/Deity/Religion
Not Applicable in this setting
Place of Origin
A photo of the map of the Tablelands from the AD&D 2nd Edition Dark Sun Boxed Set.
Traditionally, the Halflings of this region of Athas come form the Forest Ridge off to the west of the map, beyond the Ringing Mountains. Now, looking at the description of the Forest Ridge in the Wanderer’s Journal, the setting guide that comes in the Dark Sun boxed set, I can see where I got the idea that Halflings were cannibals. Travellers in the forest need to watch out for being ambushed and caught by Halfling tribes. If presented to their king, he is likely to eat them alive! Anyway, this is where Rezina is from. Why has she made her way to the Tablelands? Perhaps she heard about the reputation of the secret Preserver’s organisation, the Veiled Alliance, and wanted to join.
Saving Throws
A photo of Table 60: Character Saving Throws from the AD&D 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook.
Technically, the next thing on the sheet would be the ability scores but I have covered those completely so I am moving on to Saves. The Character Saving Throws table is unreasonably hard to find. They have stuck it in the Combat chapter, instead of the Character Creation one. Bonkers. Also, it’s so complicated. Why? Whyyyyy?
Anyway, she is a Wizard of sorts so these are her base Saving Throws at 3rd level: Paralyzation, Poison or Death Magic: 14 Rod, Staff or Wand: 11 Petrification or Polymorph: 13 Breath Weapon: 15 Spell: 12 But she also gets +1 against rods, staves, wands, spells and poison for every 3 1/2 points of CON… so that’s an extra +5 for Rezina.
Armour Class
No armour allowed for our Illusionist, but, with DEX 18 she gets a -4 modifier, leaving her with a respectable base AC of 6, but a Surprised AC of 10, a Shieldless AC of 6 and Rear AC of 10.
DEX checks, vision checks, hearing checks
There is a section beside AC on this character sheet that includes these three things. I have no memory of these scores or modifiers and I am not sure where to look to find them (the index does nothing.) I will fill in the DEX Checks one with a +2, though as it seems to make sense as a reaction adjustment so save against falling or something similar. Moving on!
Hit Points
I rolled a 4, a 4 and a 3 on my 3d4 since she is 3rd level and added 6, +2 from her Constitution each level, to make 17.
THAC0
To Hit Armour Class 0. The most arcane thing about this complicated process, perhaps? Anyway, all Wizards of 1st to 3rd level have a THAC0 of 20. So, Rezina needs to get a modified attack roll of 20 to hit something with AC 0. Thankfully, this PDF calculates all the rest of the table for you!
Combat Modifiers
Once again, as a type of Wizard, Rezina has a non-proficiency modifier of -5 to an attack roll. That means that using a weapon she is not proficient, she is much less likely to hit. But she does have a +1 to hit with slings (her one weapon proficiency) and thrown weapons. She has no damage bonus due to her 11 STR and she has a -4 to AC from her DEX as stated earlier.
Weapon Combat
I mapped out here the details of the sling and her chosen ammo, the sling stone. She gets one attack with it per round, it’s size is small, has a speed of 6 (this has an affect on your initiative score), it has the blunt damage type, she has a +1 to hit with it, it does 1d4 damage and finally it has short/medium/long ranges of 4/8/16. There is so much to note and keep track of here it is honestly bewildering. Glad I didn’t get a class with more than one weapon proficiency, honestly.
Proficiencies
So, these are the non-weapon proficiencies and include languages. My INT 17 gives me 6 slots to play with. On top of my free language, Halfling, I took two more, the common tongue and Gith, the tongue of the desert raiders. I also took some Dark Sun specific ones, Somatic Concealment allows spell-casters to hide the somatic components of their spells. Being an unsanctioned wizard in one of the city-states is a dangerous business you see. Heat protection seems important to survival in this setting. Sign language looked for someone who is potentially part of a secret rebellion. Finally, boring old Reading/writing from the
Equipment
Money is a bit different on Athas compared to other D&D settings. Metal is incredibly rare here so the most common coin is the ceramic piece, which can be further broken Doen into ceramic bits. 1000 ceramic bits = 100 ceramic pieces = 10 silver pieces = 2 electrum pieces = 1 gold piece = 1/5 platinum piece.
A Wizard starts off with 1d4+1 x 30 cp. Of course I rolled a 1 so that’s 60 cp. yes. Not a lot to start with.
According to the Dark Sun Rules Book nonmetal items cost one percent of he price listed in the PHB and all metal items cost the price listed. This puts most metal items out of my price range. But at least a sling is affordable along with a few stones.
But this exchange rate means the price of the sling, 5cp in the PHB, would be 1/2 a ceramic bit so this is kind of a pain. I will round it up to one bit. And get 100 stones for another bit. Down to 59cp and 8 bits. I’m also going to buy a fire kit for 2 bits, a tun of water for 1 sp (10cp,) a common robe for 1cp, some sandals for 5 bits, a backpack for 2 cp, a small belt pouch for 1cp, 50ft go hempen rope for 1 cp and a week’s worth of dry rations for 10cp. I’ve rounded up or down here or there because the maths was doing my head in. But, basically, I’ve got 34 CP and 1 bit left after that.
Movement
As a Halfling, Rezina is not the fastest thing on two legs. Her movement is 6, this means she can move 60 yards in a single round. In this game, a combat round is approximately one minute long. WTF? I did not remember that. That seems like a huge gulf of time! I think the current rules in 5E have a round at like 6 seconds. So, ten times less. Anyway, her movement rate of 6 means she can also walk 12 miles in a day.
Encumbrance
Just no. Honestly, I couldn’t be bothered with it in 1991 and I can’t be bothered now.
Character Class information
Special Powers/benefits
Wizard spells
10% bonus to XP due to INT 17
+1 to saves against illusions
enemies have -1 to saves against my illusions
Extra illusion spell at each level
Easier to research new illusion spells (I don’t know how this works exactly)
Special hindrances
Harder to research new non-illusion spells
Cannot learn spells from the schools of necromancy, invocation/evocation or abjuration
Psionics
A photo of the front cover of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition of the Complete Psionics Handbook from TSR.
All characters in Dark Sun have a psionic wild talent, a minor or major power that they get for free! I’m going to roll on the Wild Devotion table in the complete Psionics Handbook to see what I get. I rolled a 100! Unbelievable. What that means is that I get to choose any devotion (minor power) from the table and then roll again on the Wild Science (major power) table. I think I will choose Flesh Armour for my squishy Illusionist from the Wild Devotion table and then I roll a 36 on the Wild Sciences table, which gives me the Death Field psychometabolic power. This power is going to gradually turn Rezina evil. Oops. It costs 40 PSP and, when I sacrifice a certain number of HP, everyone else I the filed loses the same amount if they fail their save v Death. Flesh Armour has a table you have to roll on when you use the power. That determines the level of armour you get from it. It costs 8 PSP. AS for Psionic Strength Points, Rezina starts with 31 thanks to the table in the Complete Psionics Handbook where it’s based on her Wisdom score and modifiers from CON and INT. This of course means that she will never be able to use Death Field…
Wizard Spells
Finally, onto spells. My Illusionist has three 1st level and two 2nd level spells. And here they are:
Colour Spray – Blinds creatures
Change Self – self explanatory really
Audible Glamer – can make a noise equivalent of that made by 4 men…
Blur – gives enemies penalties to hit her
Invisibility – makes you invisible, dunnit
Conclusion
When I went into this, I thought I would get through it in a couple of hours. Here I am, three days later, and I finally have a fully formed Dark Sun Halfling Illusionist PC. It is not an easy process. It is very difficult to find all the information you need to make your character. I had to use at least three different books and had to go searching through them to find things like Saving Throw and THAC0 tables that should be easy to find. I ended up with a character I would happily play but was it worth it? Honestly, I’m not sure. It was educational alright. It taught me that it might be not such a great idea to try to start up a new Dark Sun campaign using the old Ad&D rules, for certain.
What do you think of this whole process? Do you enjoy a protracted character creation process? If you were one of my players, would you want to go through all this?
Well, yesterday I started by creating a brand new character to be played in Dark Sun, the AD&D 2nd Edition setting. Here’s what we’ve hot so far:
Name: Rezina
Pronouns: she/her
Race: Halfling
Ability Scores:
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 18
Constitution: 18
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 18
Charisma: 9
3ft 3in tall
59lbs in weight
41 years of age
What have we learned? Race is problem in these older books. The ways they refer to characters as “half-breeds” or inherently unintelligent or bred to be sterile are incredibly distasteful. It is all couched in very racist and unsympathetic language and I am glad that that sort of writing is a thing of the past. Also, Dark Sun characters come out powerful, with the new way of rolling up your ability scores and some really useful racial traits.
Stay classy
It’s time to look at classes in Dark Sun. There are many changes to the classes compared to the AD&D 2nd Ed Player’s Handbook. There are also a few new ones here. Dark Sun introduced the Defiler, the Gladiator, the Preserver, the Psionicist and the Templar to the game. Technically, Psionics were introduced in the Complete Psionics Handbook, though. I mentioned yesterday that Halflings can choose from the following classes: Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Gladiator, Illusionist, Psionicist, Ranger and Thief. But I will take a look at each of the new ones and the major changes to the existing classes too.
The Dark Sun Rules Book splits the classes into their categories of Warrior, Wizard, Priest and Rogue with Psionicist sort of tacked onto the end.
A photo of the AD&D 2nd Edition Battlesystem Skirmishes Miniatures Rules from TSR.
TSR really wanted you to use their Battle System mass-combat rules with Dark Sun. If I remember correctly, parts of the opening few official adventures contained full-scale battles where it expected you to have armies of miniatures fielded against each other. I don’t remember ever using them, despite having the book. Anyway, as a result of that, one of the main things that Fighters got in Dark Sun was a whole bunch of automatic followers. These people would just flock to you as a successful Fighter as you gained levels. They can also teach weapon proficiencies from 3rd level, operate heavy war machines from 4th level, supervise the construction of defences from 6th level, command large number of troops from 7th level and construct heavy war machines from 9th level. All of these very Battle System related abilities are in addition to the stuff they get in the PHB. Fighters have an ability requirement of 9 STR so Rezina could, technically take this class. Hit Dice: D10.
The Gladiator is a new class. They are the slave warriors of the Sorcerer Kings. The arena is a big part of life in the City States of the Tablelands. It is the main form of entertainment and a system of control for the masses. It’s also big industry as the slave trade is key to the economy of the region. Gladiators get a few nice benefits. They gain proficiency in all weapons and can specialise in multiple weapons too. Not only that, but they are expert in unarmed combat and get to optimise their armour, reducing their AC by 1 for every five levels. From 9th level, Gladiators also gain followers like the Fighter. They have some harsh ability score requirements though, STR 13, DEX 12 and CON 15. The Strength requirement disqualifies Rezina, I’m afraid. Hit Dice: D10.
Rangers are mostly unchanged from how they are described in the PHB. They have to decide on an elemental plane of worship at 8th level and can only cast cleric spells from that sphere and they gain followers of animal and humanoid type from 10th level. Required STR 13 means I can’t choose to be a Ranger. Hit Dice: D10.
Onto the Wizards! Rezina can choose only Illusionist from this list but we’ll have a look at them anyway as they are so important to the overall lore of the world. Wizards work quite differently on Athas. The default magic user is the Defiler. These guys drain the life from the world around them to power their magic and, as a result of their disdain for the environment, they gain levels much faster than their Preserver counterparts. Preservers balance their consumption of magical energy to minimise or chancel the damage they do. Of course, this course makes them level up much slower. Finally, there is the Illusionist, a specialist wizard class who are treated exactly as they are in the PHB except that they have to choose to be either a preserver or defiler. Regular Preservers and Defilers only have an ability score requirement of INT 9, but if you want to be an Illusionist, you also need to have DEX 16. So, this is, in fact, an option for Rezina.
Priests are split into Clerics, Druids and Templars. The Clerics are worshipers of a particular elemental plane, rather than of a deity or pantheon. Athas does not have its own gods and is considered separated somehow from the influence of the Outer Planes. It is very hard to get to and from Athas, in fact, through planar magic, portals or even spelljamming vessels. So, Clerics, although they may be flavoured differently depending on their backgrounds, gain power from the Inner Planes, the elements, instead. Their weapon restrictions are based on the elemental plane they worship, they can ignore the presence of the element they worship from level 5, they can gate material form their chosen plane at level 7. You need a WIS 9 to be a Cleric so that is an option.
Druids are out for Rezina due to their ability score requirements, WIS 12 and CHA 15. She’s just ain’t got that rizz. Druids have to choose an area known as their Guarded Lands and from 12th level on, they have to spend half their time there. They gain their powers from the spirits there. Usually, their spells are restricted to one or two spheres related to their guarded lands. They can speak with animals and plants as they gain levels, and get a whole bunch of powers from their lands.
Clerics and Druids are really only a thing outside the City States themselves. Inside, the priests who matter are the Templars, the priests of the Sorcerer-kings. They’re not good guys. In fact, a Templar PC has to be either Neutral or Evil. They enforce the edicts and laws of the Sorcerer-kings and are not above a little corruption. They have access to vast libraries that allow them to use spells from all spheres, though they progress slower than Clerics at lower levels. Unlike the other priests, Templars get their spells directly from their Sorcerer-king. They can raise and ally with undead but cannot turn them, they have the power of life and death over slaves (this is a class benefit…) they can legally enter the house of a free man and accuse them of disloyalty from 4th level and pass judgement on them from 7th level. They can start throwing their weight around with nobles from 10th level. They can can requisition soldiers from 3rd level, gain access to all areas of palaces from 5th level and draw on the city treasury for official investigations. From 17th level, they can pardon any condemned person, though, which is nice. Rarely do you see a class in RPGs that is as focused on civic matters and accusing people of shit to get their way. It’s a weird one and I don’t think anyone in my games ever chose to play one. Anyway, Rezina can’t be one because she is a Halfling.
Onto the Rogues.
Bards are out for Rezina as she is a Halfling. But they are pretty cool in Dark Sun. They are renowned, not only as entertainers, but also, assassins, blackmailers and thieves. They have all the benefits of the original Bard from the PHB but they also have a mastery of Poisons. One big difference is that they don’t get access to spells at all.
Thieves work basically the same as they do in the PHB but they also can find a patron from 10th level. These guys can give them jobs or protect them from others. With the only pre-requisite being DEX 9, Rezina could choose this class.
A photo of the front cover of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition of the Complete Psionics Handbook from TSR.
Finally, the Psionicist. Every character in Dark Sun rolls on a table to get a Wild Talent, an innate psionic ability that may or may not be particularly useful so the class is open to all races. But Psionicists have a whole raft of abilities that come with the class. Luckily I have a copy the Complete Psionics Handbook (TSR 1991.) Psionics were based on the idea that the powers were split into separate disciplines within which you get major powers called sciences and minor ones called devotions. Your character gets a pool of Psionic Strength Points, based on a relatively complicated equation involving WIS score and CON and INT modifiers. You spend these to use powers. They also learn Defense Modes which are used in psionic battles. They gain followers from 9th level. The ability requirements are CON 11, INT 12 and WIS 15 so Rezina could choose this class.
There are a few other points to consider before making the choice here. Halflings can choose to multiclass and Dark Sun characters start at 3rd level by default. I won’t multiclass, just to keep this a bit simpler.
Another characteristic of Dark Sun is that you are supposed to have a character tree, ie, a selection of 4 characters to choose from in between adventures or so there is backup in case one character dies in this very lethal setting. I won’t be doing this as I have spent so long making just a single character already!
Time to choose
A photo of page 30 of the AD&D 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook. It contains the description of the Wizard class, including Wizard level progression and Spell Progression tables.A photo of the Illusionist section from the AD&D 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook.
My options are Fighter, Illusionist, Cleric, Thief and Psionicist. Should I roll for it? Yep. On a d5 (thanks again DCC) I rolled a 2. Illusionist!
Illusionists get a +1 on saves vs illusion spells and others get a -1 against their spells. They also get to memorise an extra illusion spell at each level. Researching new illusion spells is easier but conversely, researching the spells of other schools is harder. Of course, it also means that they can’t learn spells from Schools directly opposed by illusion, ie, necromancy, invocation/evocation and abjuration.
Ok, I am going to have to wrap this up here. This character creation process in Ad&d is pretty time intensive, especially when I go through every potential class candidate and critique them I will have to finish this off tomorrow. See you then!
So the character creation posts have had some good feedback. People mainly seem to like it when it goes disastrously wrong for some reason. Schadenfreude maybe? Anyway, I thought I would continue the series with another one. This time, I thought I would go back to the game I think of when I think of my teenage years, AD&D 2nd Edition (TSR 1989), and, more specifically, the Dark Sun setting (TSR 1991). I have never been a player in a Dark Sun game, I was always the DM, so this will be interesting. Also, Dark Sun characters need to be pretty hardy to survive the scorching wastes of the magic-blasted world of Athas. So, if I roll bad, you sadists out there should get a kick out of it.
Step 1 – Ability scores
A photo of the “Rolling Ability Scores” section of the AD&D 2nd Edition Dark Sun Rules Book.
We see an immediate departure from AD&D norms with rolling your ability scores in Dark Sun. Because the setting is so brutal, your PCs get higher than average scores to reflect the hardness of life there. So, instead of the usual 3d6 for each score, you roll 4d4+4 for a minimum of 8 (even though the book claims the minimum is 5, which is numerically impossible) and a maximum of 20, unmodified. There are a bunch of optional methods for rolling included in the Dark Sun Rules Book but I am going to stick with the basic one. So, here we go:
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 19 (Suck it Canon Fodder)
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 16
Charisma: 10 (Oh well, they can’t all be winners)
First thoughts; obviously this method produces some high results. Also, I was very lucky. Also, these rolls mean that this character could choose almost any race or class. Second thoughts; now that it comes to it, this is one of the reasons my players really liked this setting. They got to create some very powerful characters, even without cheating on their rolls (which was, I must be honest, the norm at the time)!
Step 2 – Player character race
A photo of Table 3: Racial Class and Level Limits from the AD&D 2nd Dark Sun Rules Book.
There are Racial Ability Requirements in this setting as there are in the base game, but some of them are very tough to achieve. The only one I think is ruled out is the Half-giant. If you want to be one of those big lads, you need to have a minimum strength score of 17. So here are the races I get to choose from:
Dwarf
Elf
Half-elf
Halfling
Human
Mul
Thri-kreen
Pretty much none of the races in Dark Sun bear any resemblance to the standard D&D ones, with the possible exception of bland old humans. There are also a few new ones here.
Dwarves are all hairless and obsessed with a focus that gives them bonuses to saves and proficiencies when performing them in pursuit of that goal. They can choose to be Clerics, Fighters, Gladiators, Psioicists, Templars or Thieves. Although all of these have level caps below 20 except for Gladiator and Psionicists. Some of them are really low. A Dwarf can only get to level 10 as a Templar for instance! But they can multi-class. They get a +2 to CON, +1 to STR, -1 to DEX and -2 to CHA.
Elves are tall and lanky and weather-worn with an incredible stamina needed for running long distances across the Athasian deserts. They are very insular and tribal. They get bonuses with long swords and longbows made by their own tribes and to surprise rolls in the wilds. They can choose to be any class except Bard or Druid. They get +2 to DEX, +1 To INT, -1 to WIS and -2 to CON.
Half-elves have to deal with terrible intolerance from both elves and humans and have to do without basic connections or friends (this shit is in the text, ugh.) Anyway, it makes them very much self-reliant loners. They get a free Survival proficiency at 3rd level and can make a pet friend at 5th level! All classes are open to them and they get to multi-class if they want. They get a +1 bonus to DEX and a -1 to CON.
Half-giants are a thing in this setting. And, although I can’t choose them, here is a little bit about them. They are up to 12 feet tall and weigh up to 1600 lbs! They have no culture of their own as a very young and dull-witted race. Once again, the text is pretty bad about this kind of thing. It really underlines for me the need for the push-back this sort of thing rightly received in more recent times. Anyway, they getting bonuses to STR and CON and minuses to INT, WIS and CHA. They can only choose from 5 classes.
A photo of the Halflings section of the AD&D 2nd Edition Dark Sun Rules Book including an illustration by Brom depicting two tattooed halflings with long, wild hair emerging from a cave.
Halflings are small humanoids from the jungles at the fringes of civilisation in the Tablelands of Athas. Their culture is concerned mainly with appreciating their local natural world and complex interactions of a social sort between their various villages and clans. They are not really into war and wealth. They get bonuses to use slings and thrown weapons, to surprise opponents and to save against magic and poisons. They get a -2 to STR, -1 to CON, -1 to CHA, +2 to DEX and +2 to WIS. They can choose any class except Bard, Defiler, Preserver and Templar. They can choose to multi-class. As a side note, I had a memory of Halflings all being cannibals in this setting but it is not mentioned in the character creation section so it might have just come up in certain adventures or something. Not sure.
Humans are much like humans in other settings except they generally have some weird little traits, like mutations. This is a post-apocalyptic setting after all. So players are given latitude to come up with some little physical idiosyncrasy that is purely for flavour. They can choose any class and can be dual-class, but cannot multi-class.
Muls are yet another “half-race.” Its genuinely so distasteful, this whole business. Anyway, here we are, they are half human, half dwarf. They are the product of slave-owners “ordering their births” for gladiatorial or labourers. They are born sterile. FFS. My stomach truly turns at this description of this race. It’s just so cruel. They also “live out their lives in servitude, driven by hatred and spite.” Give them a break! They are tall and well built. They get a +2 to STR and +1 to CON, but a -1 to INT and a -2 to CHA. They can work longer and harder than others as well. They have to choose, at the time of creation if they are considered human or Demi-human. If considered human they can have unlimited advancement in any class and become dual-classed. If the player chooses demi-human, they can, instead become multi-classed and can only choose from Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Gladiator, Psionicist and Thief. This really puts a great big question mark over the entire idea of class restrictions on Demi-human races, if you ask me. This suggests that the reason a demi-human can’t choose any class or get all the way to 20th level in it, is not because of a physiological, racial impediment, it’s only because human society says they can’t… I mean, what?
Finally, Thri-kreen. They’re big mantis guys who have a base AC of 5 but never wear armour. They don’t need to sleep but they can’t use most magical items as they are generally designed for use by human shaped people. Their hunting packs control much of the Tablelands. They have a well-known taste for elves (maybe I was mixing up the Thri-kreen and the Halflings.) They get natural bite and claw attacks and a powerful leap. They get venomous saliva at 5th level as well as a bonus proficiency with the Chatkcha, a thrown weapon. They can also dodge missiles at 7th level. They get a +1 to WIS and +2 to DEX, but -1 to INT and -2 to CHA. They can choose to be Clerics, Druids, Fighters, Gladiators, Psionicists or Rangers and they can multi-class too.
This post is already much longer than I had intended. I started going through the races and couldn’t stop commenting on them. It was like watching a car-crash in slow motion.
Anyway, I think I will have to continue this character creation process in another post tomorrow. But, before I go, I think I will have to complete the choice. Obviously, as always, the race you select will have a direct effect on the choice of class due to the ability score modifiers. But, since we have a tradition of randomness in the character creation posts, I think I will stick with it and roll for it. There are seven races available to me and, luckily, I do have a d7 to hand thanks to DCC. Here goes:
I rolled a 6 on a d7, dear reader, but I just can’t accept it because that would have been a Mul and that makes me too sad. So I re-rolled and got a 4, Halfling!
So, that leaves me with ability scores as follow:
Strength: 11
Hit probability: Normal, Dmg Adjustment: None, Weight allow.: 40lbs, Max press: 115lbs, Open Doors: 6, Bend Bars/Lift Gates: 2%
HP Adj.: +2 (+4 for Warriors. This means Fighters, Rangers and Gladiators in Dark Sun), System Shock: 99%, Resurrection Survival: 100%, Poison Save: 0, Regeneration: Nil
Intelligence: 17
# of Lang: 6, Spell Level: 8th, Chance to learn spell: 75%, Max. # of Spells/Lvl: 14, Spell Immunity: –
I have an easier time writing about the games I am GMing or the ones I am going to GM in the future, compared to those I play in. I think the reasons for this are pretty obvious, right? I have an a behind-the-scenes view of the games I GM, I have read widely on the games, maybe I have home-brewed the world, I probably have a better handle on the rules than most others at the table. As well as that, I set up the game, I send out the invites, I normally host the game, so, it makes sense.
As for the ones I play in, I am still invested in them, or at least in my character, I have usually made some effort with a backstory and personality and I want them to experience cool stuff in the game world with a bunch of other weirdos. There are probably a couple of my characters that I could spend an entire post discussing (and probably will, now that I think about it) but not before they are even made.
Anyway, that’s why I am taking the last few games from my Games I want to Play this Year list and pop them all into this one post.
Old School Essentials – campaign I think
My friend, Isaac of Black Sword Hack fame has been working his way steadily through all the OSE books he could get his hands on. He’s almost ready to kick off that campaign! Very exciting! It will be my fist time playing this system and having been a part of Isaac’s Black Sword Hack game for the last couple of years, I know how he likes to construct a grubby, fun, weird campaign world for us to muck around in.
I am not all that familiar with the ruleset of OSE, but from what I understand, it took the rules from Basic D&D and some of those from AD&D and took out all the stuff that people tended to ignore. I know it does have a race-as-class idea that is similar to the way DCC does it but, overall, it gives me much more old school D&D vibes than DCC does.
I might just go and roll up a few little guys using the OSE rules to get an idea of how it works and get in the mood for it.
Heart: The City Beneath – Open Hearth campaign
This game technically already started; I am achieving my goals, dear reader! We have only had a session 0 in which I created my aelfir Incarnadine, Forgotten-Frost-Remembered. He is called to the Heart in search of adventure (also he had to flee the City Above due to his crass and embarrassing obsession with money, not to mention his astronomical levels of debt.) He and his fellow delvers are on a mission to help a haven that we created together using the rules from Sanctum, a sourcebook for Heart that is meant for this very purpose. The haven has no name as it was deleted by a Deadwalker some time earlier. The aim is to build it up while pursuing more selfish goals before we all blow up in a conclusion of zenith ability fuelled glory.
All credit to our GM, Mike, for having the presence of mind and session 0 nous to figure out our group’s haven-based goal and get us to create it together in under an hour.
Can’t wait to start getting weird in the Heart.
Call of Cthulhu – Masks of Nyarlathotep – campaign
This one is probably a long-shot. This is actually an ongoing campaign but has been on semi-permanent hiatus since, I want to say 2022? Not sure. Anyway, this is another of Isaac’s campaigns. It was one of those things, playing with adults can mean that sometimes, real life stuff takes precedence and there’s not much you can do about it. Since then we got into other games and other campaigns and Masks has been on the back burner for a long time. Every time we get to chatting about Call of Cthulhu, we end up saying we would love to get this classic campaign started up again.
Last we left our intrepid investigators (I was playing a gangland boss from London named Grant Mitchell) they had faced down other worldly terrors in the basement of an occult shop and proved the innocence of a man falsely accused of murder. They also uncovered some evidence and information that drew them to various other places around the world in their pursuit of answers to the question of who was responsible for the murder of their good friend, Jackson Elias. Anyway, they had concluded their snooping in New York and were on a slow boat to London. It has been a very slow boat at this stage…
Magus, Pike and Drum – Playtest
It’s Isaac again! This time with an early playtest for a game that he is very much still developing. I don’t want to go into any detail here but I think I can say at least that it is a semi-historical setting and it will be using the Resistance system, created for Spire. Can’t wait to try it out. What I have read of the character classes and abilities so far makes it sound very fun and interesting to play.
OK, that about wraps it up for today. See you tomorrow with more from the Dice Pool.
I have a hankering, beloved reader. I crave a little old school. Not revived or anything. No renaissance here. I’m talking, the original (at least for me.) I have been thinking about running an honest to goodness AD&D 2E campaign. That’s the system I cut my teeth on as a DM and I have a lot of the old books lying about on shelves, rarely picked up for any reason other than curiosity. I have a trio of my favourite settings from the old days, Planescape, Ravenloft and Dark Sun. But, is having them a good enough reason to want to run them? The rule set in 2E still involved THAC0, for crying out loud. Only certain races and certain alignments could play certain classes. Every rule seems over the top and over-worked when you look at them. So why? Why would I want to run it?
Nostalgia?
I ran the most successful campaign of my teenaged years in Dark Sun. I loved the setting. It was gritty and made life very difficult for your player characters. They had to start at 3rd level because a first level character wasn’t going to survive in the deserts of Athas too long. You were encouraged to create a “stable” of 5 characters and switch between them to level them all up, just because it was quite lethal. Most mages actively destroyed the land by casting spells and the Halflings were cannibals. It was fucking hardcore and we loved it. So, when I think about running AD&D again, I think I’m channeling the feelings from that time.
But I will admit there is also a sort of morbid curiosity to try it out. More as a historical research project than anything else. How would it compare to more modern systems like 5E or the Year Zero engine or even actual OSR systems? And I think at least one of my players shares this sense of curiosity about this game and the legacy it spawned. He didn’t get to experience it so maybe it’s just his curiosity too. I mean, people really did love it, right? So, why?
Dark Sun
There is also another point, though. It might even be the main reason I want to do it. Dark Sun itself. WOTC have indicated in the past that they are never likely to revive Dark Sun as a setting for D&D. It just has too many slightly problematic elements. There is a lot about slavery in it. There’s a very strong theme of climate disaster and despotism and evil capitalists. I think it is generally safe to say that Wizards is not interested in picking up any political hot potatoes these days. They will keep it light and breezy whenever possible. So Dark Sun is never likely to come back. Now, I know that enterprising individuals have made some impressive 5E conversions of the setting and I have explored that option. But they don’t give me what the original did. I think Dark Sun benefits from the cruel and crunchy 2E system as much as it does from the grittiness of its world building. And I think that is the main reason I want to run it again.
Anyone out there running any old versions of D&D? If so, why?
The Dice Pool 