More Thoughts on 5e and D&D

Real life has again stepped into the path of our gaming sessions which have stalled - but I'm kind of ok with that.

You see, as an old-school DM running 5e for the first time, I have to say that this is the least fun I've had running a disastrous two sessions in 1993.  

5e D&D is just not that fun to run. There are so many layers of rules buried in books that are filled with fluff and padding. The game gets bogged down in that minutia even if you are trying to avoid it. That's not to say that there aren't good ideas, there are, but the current game, D&D is broken and no fun.

The (super)heroes are too powerful. The game is no longer about resource management as characters 'reset' after a rest and pretty much everyone can see in the dark. There is no thrill, suspense, danger, death. And that has always been the game for me.  

I feel with the original D&D game and with old school clones, there are many 'gaps' in the rules that you either fill in or don't. It gave the game a lightness and allowed you to tweak as you saw fit or not at all.  You see that with all the retro clone rules that have come out over the years. They're all essentially the same, just house-ruled slightly. And that is where the game becomes the game. 

5e, on the other hand, is over bloated with rules that you have to wade through and weed out. It's all spelled out for you in the minuscule of details that it inhibits that freedom of imagination.  Instead of thinking "there's no rule for this, i'll make a ruling or make something up", you find in 5e that there IS or probably is a rule about something and you have to know it, look it up, or if you wing it, you have to retcon it later and explain to you players next session. It's a very subtle thing but I think it gets to the core as to what makes this game work for me and what doesn't.

It's subtleties as well. Those minor elements, from the crude or black and white artwork, rule presentation, the emotion behind the intent of those 'old school' rules creates a certain atmosphere that carries into gameplay on a subconscious level. D&D does not have that anymore for me. The artwork is not inspiring. Faerun is not inspiring. The rules are not inspiring. Dungeons & Dragons is no longer inspiring.

Furthermore, and I've mentioned this before, D&D 5e is ridiculously complex for noobs to RPGs to play.  Even stripped down somewhat, D&D is no longer a gateway game. Sure, in pop culture it may appear to be, but in reality, it's not.  I wish I had started my players with Swords and Wizardry or Tiny Dungeons. I think all of us would have had a much better time.

Dungeons and Dragons is a brand. Even more obvious with the whole OGL fiasco that has recently played out publicly.  I do not care about the brand. I am not brand loyal. I care about the game and I am game loyal.  The game is Swords & Wizardry. The game is Labyrinth Lord. The game is BFRPG. The game is Tiny Dungeon.  The game is Shadowdark.

The 5e and the OGL fiasco has showed me, and maybe all of us, that the brand, as owned by hasbro, is forever tarnished and rotten and is really no longer needed. It was probably true when they ousted Lord Garry Gygax way back when. 

All I know is that my 5e experiment is over. I'm packing up that material and hiding it in the deepest part of the dungeon, forever lost to dim stretches of time.

Tales Of High Adventure Original D&D Pod-Play

So for all of you that have returned from your journeys at GenCon, for all of you getting ready for the OSRCon, for all of you Grognards out there old and young, for all you classic role-players, fantasy bloggers and all other fans of pulp fantasy drama The Warlock's Home Brew presents the first chapter in it's original Pod-Play drama Beneath The Ruined Tower Of Zenopus! An original scripted performance about a group of adventurers exploring the labyrinth beneath a magicians ruined tower! Dedicated to and influenced by John Eric Holmes' sample dungeon in the original blue book.

Tune in to the theater of your mind with Tales of High Adventure!

THE RUINED TOWER OF ZENOPUS
Chapter 1: Into the Dark

Written and Produced by Paul Fini

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Performed by the Warlock's Home Brewed Role-players:

Corey Bishop…..Arvin Ardmore, priest of Mithra
Brain Dunkle…..Tibag Backstabber, rogue
Paul Fini…..Announcer, Father Halford, Sorcerer
Zachariah Hoffman…..Skwanky Furrytoe, halfling
Clay Lewis…..Gedleesmote Hammersend the Dwarf
Max Liberman…..Vincent the Wizard
Mike Moran…..Wolf the Viking
Christy Cameron Smith…..Narrator, Harlot

Also featuring
Richard Gabriel…..Mithra pirest
Sara Gabriel…..Jesse the bar wench, goblin
Brendan & Adam Gabriel…..Goblins
Michael Griffith.....Morak

This Pod-play is dedicated to John Eric Holmes

Listen Now (17 minutes)...



Listen to Chapter 2: An Unexpected Alliance

Listen to Chapter 3: Dark Sorcery!

The Ads Of The Dragon Issue 55

I don't have to tell you how awesome my players are, I've mentioned that numerous times here at the Home Brew. Clay, who is now running our Savage Worlds game, picked up this little relic from his home state of Nebraska. Cover by Erol Otus no less too!

Now I'm sure we've all walked through the pages of Dragon Magazines loaded with classic treasures and anecdotes of bygone eras and this one is no different. A great little article by Gygax about his 200+ page Temple of Elemental Evil Module (release date pushed to early 1982), there's a great little Basic D&D dungeon, and dinosaurs galore. This issue falls just after that imaginary border-line of the Dragon when it began to be more of a promotion for AD&D and less about OD& D (great post about this over at Original Editions).

But what I always find more interesting in these 'vintage' magazine (comics and pulps too) are the ads. For all you sociologists out there, the ads can give you a great snapshot of the underlying culture surrounding the publication.

Let's take a look, shall we? (click to enbiggen)

Great little ad illustration by Gene Day for a Wild West RPG.

I love all of the ads for the hobby shops carrying RPG products. Truly a golden age!
And you thought Play By Post took forever!
Get you geek on with a cool dragon tee-shirt then get beat up wearing a not-so-cool Unicorn belt buckle.

I don't think I ever knew what the flip this was. It looked ugly as hell. But it was a gaming aid so it couldn't be all that bad, right?
Back cover ad for some old school computer gaming action!
(Check out James' Crush, Crumble and Chomp Epyx ad)


And finally, this beautiful ad for White Dwarf illustrated by Emmanuel, cover artist for The Fiend Folio (and new banner image for The Warlock's Home Brew).

One More Delve Back In Time...

James M's post last Friday and all the subsequent responses has brought to mind the early days of the hobby.

I know many of you were around during the first few moments after the Big Bang of the birth of fantasy role-playing games. Those of you so called Grognards may remember some of this quite well. The rest of you please sit back and enjoy the ride down memory lane as I give you my picture of my first experience seeing the game.

Growing up we had a great hobby shop near us that us kids could bike to or easily stop off at on the way home from school. It was called The Hobbyist and it had your usual plastic model kits and accessories, model rockets, and model trains. A couple of doors down we had a great little book store called The Book End that sold classic silver age marvel comics for only a few dollars (those same comics are now worth 10 times or more that amount). Another few doors down soon opened a used book store, a record shop and coming soon was one of the Chicagoland's original comic shops; Moondogs.

Pretty much heaven on earth for any kid.

All these shops were privately owned, no big corporate chain stores. These were the mom and pop stores that we hear talked about so much these days.

The Hobbyist was run by a Mr. Bill Wright and one or two assistants whom I can't quite remember, I think one might've been his son. Bill Wright was a great guy and ran a great little shop. He was always friendly to us kids coming in and hanging out at his store even though we didn't really have much money to buy anything.

After school we'd all stop over there or ride our bikes over on the weekends.

One day, while popping in after school I noticed this colorful and fantastic new box on the shelf squeezed in with other traditional hobby magazines. It had a giant red dragon sitting on a pile of gold, jewels and other treasure. Standing in front of the dragon was undoubtedly a wizard holding a torch and a magic wand and across from him some type of knight. The title on the box was Dungeons & Dragons, the original Adult Fantasy Role Playing game for 3 or more players. Basic set with introductory module.

I never before saw this in any hobby shop and was amazed by this box cover. It struck a chord within my imagination that still vibrates to this day. I had no idea what this was. It was a game, without a doubt, but what kind of game with a dragon and wizard. And what the heck was 'Role-playing'? It wasn't in your typical Parker Brothers box either. It was strange and I left mulling this over. And that name…Dungeons & Dragons!

I would return again and again to The Hobbyist to just stare and wonder at this game box, not having enough money to purchase it (I believe it was $10). But what was odd, was that almost every time I would stop in at the shop, which was quite frequent, another item would appear on the shelf. These items had fantastic covers of swords and fantasy. Some small packages began appearing with tiny unpainted figures, supposedly for these games I surmised. Next, games about the world wars and Napoleon showed up in larger boxes than that Dungeons & Dragons and others still which depicted more fantasy creatures and monsters and some kind of War with a Ring.

I became obsessed with this new game and all these other things that kept appearing around it as did my younger brother and our friends. I would talk about this with my parents trying to explain what this was and leaving them confused, I'm sure. I left obvious hints that this would be something that I would want for, first my birthday and then later Christmas. It wouldn't be until that holiday season when I would receive my 'gateway' game.

Week after week more and more of these games began showing up until they began to take up a larger portion of the Hobbyist floor space. It wasn't long until the Models began to take up less and less space and within a short year they were all crammed into a small 10 X 10 area leaving almost the whole store filled with Role-playing games, war games, dice, minis, paints and gaming accessories. The Hobbyist truly became a gaming store, one of the first if not the first in the Chicagoland Area. This was circa 1977-78.

The Hobbyist along with all of those great little shops where I spent all my hours and allowances have long since vanished but I can still see in my minds eye all those new and fascinating games staring at me on the shelves.

Being the obsessive graphic designer I put the below image together of all that I can remember seeing on the shelf in those early months before the rpg hobby really exploded. All of these covers to all of these games and publications were wonderful to gaze at during this innocent time of our favorite hobby.

Enjoy....

Okay, I'll Play

As per Jame's question, when I think of D&D this is what cover comes to mind:

But this is the image that really does it for me:

Okay, Jeez, Is WOTC Just Getting Desperate Or What?

Ride some coat-tails and make a buck.
They do own all the art along with the IP so I guess they can do whatever they want, but come one, have a little dignity.

Well, the bus is cool but 30 years too late. Still desperate times call for desperate measures.

Save Or Die! Classic D&D Podcast

Check out this new weekly podcast called Save Or Die! Our hosts, Liz, Mike and Vince chat about the early days of D&D with a great focus on the rules-lite classic style of the game.

1st Cast: Adventure 1 (with a review about B1 In Search of the Unknown)

2nd Cast: Interview with Tim Kask

5 Great Things To Come Out Of The OSR / IEP3GCwC / Or Whatever You Want To Call It

Yeah, I use the label OSR, The Old-School Renaissance, and that's Renaissance as in 'a rebirth or revival'. Regardless of what you label it or refuse to label it, things have happened and are happening on a larger scale (some may argue that) in an independent way in recent years that has not happened since the birth of this hobby.

So lets take a look at some of the things that have come out of this 'Renaissance' shall we:

1. The Retro-clones, Simulacra and All Their Bastard Children.

Sure, people have always been playing the earlier versions of many of these games and there ain't a thing wrong with that. But what we have here is accessibility. I still have my Holmes, Moldvay, 1st ed AD&D books but not everyone else does. Free, pay, either way, anyone can pick up/download these rules. And who can't argue that some of these rules really needed to be rewritten and revised and not tossed out leaving room for a new more complicated set of rules. All these new rules and variations that have come out refined and enhanced the original game, not to discredit what has come before but to honor it. Sure some call it just house-rules but so what? After all isn't everything a house rule? Holmes seemed to have put quite a bit of his house-rules into his blue book. So without having to mention the incredibly long list of creative efforts (Swords & Wizardry, Labryinth Lord, Basic Fantasy RPG, OSRIC, Microlite, LOTFP and countless others rule, modules, supplements, etc.) just take a gander over here for just a brief glance at just the tip of the iceberg.

2. Blog Explosion.

It probably started with the Dragonsfoot forums or perhaps the passing of one of the great wizards himself, but wherever started it, the explosion of blogs related to classic style RPGs have created a fantastic resource of shared ideas. Good blogs, bad blogs, they're all out there. I know I've been inspired and 'borrowed' a'plenty from all of these interweb authors. I would have loved to have all this available when I was 10 and just starting out with the game.

3. One Page Dungeons.

Admit it, flipping through modules can, at times, be a pain. Yeah, I'm sure many of us have compressed dungeon making into a single page before but here we have a nice format put together by some thoughtful and inspired PnP gamers. You can cram a whole lot of adventure in that single page format and it has become my go-to process to whip out a new adventure for my players. One Page Dungeon Templates. Lets not forget the One Page Wilderness template either.

4. The Return of the Megadungeon.

Pure dungeon crawl joy. Nothing says Dungeons & Dragons more than an endless labyrinth of dark tunnels, cave, chambers, pits, traps and wonder leading a party deeper beneath the surface of the earth. From Stonehell to the Castle of the Mad Arch-mage to many others the wild and wacky worlds of wonder of the Megadungeon has resurfaced again to entice many'a adventurer to their fortune or doom.

5. Magazines and Fanzine.

Knockspell, Fight On!, Encounter, OD&Dities and Nod just to name a few. Nuff Said!

Regardless of what is happening and whether people see it differently or not, something has indeed created an excitement about the 'classic' game, something to bring in old players and new alike. Something to get us all delving once again.

Let's admit that TSR as we once knew and loved it is dead. For many of us it died at many different periods of it's history but it has indeed passed. Like all of you, I have fond memories of that brand, logo, creators etc. but lets face it, Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro has really done a shitty job carrying the torch.

Well, they did give us the OGL.

p.s. I'm not saying this is a movement or club or anything. Just play any game you want and have fun!

Backstab With +4 To Hit

D&D is not only about fighting monsters, sometimes you end up fighting your fellow race of baddies. No magic, no claws - claws - bite, no big bad boss, just shield, sword and axe with some fellow revelers that you somehow wronged in the tavern the night before. I hope this guys go more than one hit die!

1st In Games

So I've been out walking the dog around our neighborhood and down this one street is an old beat-up family wagon possibly from the 60's. Inside the back bed of this vehicle, piled high, are board games from the 60's and 70's. I not talking about Monopoly or Clue but I'm seeing classic versions of Risk, some weird Football games, just all kinds of odd yet interesting stuff. Having just a bit of interest in games I saw some potential there.

So this weekend I'm walking the dog down that same street and I see this gristled old man with a long white beard carrying a couple of games and looking in the back of his wagon. I see my opportunity so I waved and walked up.

I ask him about his games. He says he sells old games online. Hmm, what are the odds. So I toss it out there.

"Any classic D&D items. Old stuff from the 70's" I says.
"Sure for a couple hundred dollars" says he.

Well, at least he seemed to know what I was talking about.

It turns out he has an online store called 1st In Games where he sells all these old games and other items, but mostly games. The site is a little primitive but there were some interesting items from Avalon Hill and a few notable items from TSR from back in the day.

So I'm passing this on to all of you that may be interested.

I mean, what are the odds that two blocks away some dude here in Tucson is selling vintage games online? Another sign that my quest is heading in the right direction!

Oh, and if you want to read about successful treasure hunting I suggest you travel over to Joe the Lawyer's blog and check out his latest haul.

The Cultural Stew That Birthed Dungeons & Dragons

There has been much talk over the recent years about the early evolution from war-games to that fantasy game we all love with all those funny looking dice. But one must also keep in mind the mindset and culture of the times when the game was birthed. We're talking the late 60's and very early 70's. A time when fantasy and science fiction were being "rediscovered" so to speak.

Tolkien's high fantasy Lord of the Rings books achieved a popularity with it's peaceful hobbits and getting back to the land concepts very much in tune with the counter-culture philosophies and fantasy-trips of the day. There was a band called Gandalf, a London club called Middle Earth, and don't forget the infamous "Frodo Lives" T-shirts too. There was even talk of a Lord of the Rings movie to be directed by Stanley Kubrik and staring The Beatles.

The mid and late 60's also saw the publishing of the Robert E. Howard Conan stories in paperback by Lancer and ACE, albeit heavily edited. That, of course, lead to the Marvel Conan comics by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. Other paperback companies jumped on board as well featuring Moorecock, Lovecraft and others, sporting fantastic cover art from the likes of Frank Frazetta and Jeff Jones.

Science Fiction, too, was leaving it's impressions on the experienced minds of young people. This was Science Fiction driven by concept and story and not laser-blasts and action. Films like 2001: A Space Odyssey with it's cosmic rebirth of earth's star-child, and grim post-apocalyptic dramas such as (Beneath the) Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and The Omega-Man (okay, maybe Chuck Heston had a monopoly on the apocalypse). Bakshi's Wizards and even Jack Kirby's DC comic Kamandi can be added to this fertile stew.



Fantasy and Science Fiction were seeping deep into the pores of our culture. It was all around and still in a pure-form. It had not been commercialized or sanitized or even sharply defined or divided. It was Science Fiction and Fantasy and it encompassed many things with the two very much blurring into each other.

It is no surprise then that some creative war-gamers took those games to another level; to attempt to bring one into these realms of fantasy and to experience for one's self the excitement and freedom and in some cases grim horror of these worlds, if only for a few hours. Thus were born Greyhawk, Blackmoore, Dragons, Dungeons, Metamorphosis Alpha, Tekumel, Traveller and many other 'Fantasy Role-Playing Games', the affects of which are still being felt to this day.

More to come....

The Thrill of the Hunt

There was a time, not too long ago and I'm sure most of us can still recall, if you wanted to track down an out of print item or a classic toy or figure or other trinket, you'd have to get up off your butt and pull out the phone book, make some calls and journey from used book store to resale shop, far and near, seeking your treasured item.

Walking into these musty and dusty shops, you were overwhelmed with the sense of glorious hidden treasures lining the shelves and crammed into every nook. You had but to seek and you would find. And if you didn't find what you were originally seeking, you'd most likely, surprisingly find something you weren't quite expecting. Just ask James from The Underdark Gazette.

Sure, there was a bit more leg work involved but when you found that first printing of Ian Fleming's Thunderball or happened upon a wall filled with vintage pulp paper-backs from the 50's and 60's or perhaps a box full of Weird Tales, the thrill and excitement and the sense of digging up that obscure lost buried chest of gold is something that you didn't soon forget. And don't even get me started on the bargains you got with these items.

Now with the internet and sites like eBay you can pretty easily track down just about any odd, obscure item your crafty mind can desire. But really, where's the fun in that. Now you're just competing just for who can pay the most for something. Case in point.

Now, I'm not knocking any method of obtaining a cherished item. Hell, I've bought and sold my treasures many a time.

I bring this up because of one thing. I never owned the original boxed set of D&D. I remember seeing it on the hobby store selves next to Holmes Basic, the monochrome Steading of the Hill Giant Chief module and Traveller . Now I never bought those Little Brown Books as I was having enough trouble figuring out how to play this "role-playing game".

Last fall, I was determined to track down the original D&D box set and pay as little for it as possible. And by little, I mean around $10. Crazy you say? Impossible? You must think me mad? Perhaps.

So, I thought, hey, I'll start hitting up antique stores, yard sales etc. Nothing too revolutionary. But what are the odds, with eBay and all, of finding that item for that little?

Never tell me the odds.

So my first trek out, I headed to an antique fair just outside of Tucson where I now live. Middle of the desert. Odds seem pretty stacked against me, I'd say. But I'm going there for one thing.

So I take a glance around and see a lot of south western style antiques. Not surprising. But then I notice a table, right at the entrance, with some interesting items; toys, some comic books and other rusted trinkets from the 50's 60's and 70's. Some old cowboy sitting in the shade minding the table. I walk up and lo', I see the the famous Erol Otus Basic box cover. Well, interesting but I have those rules so no big deal. But upon opening the box, what do I find?




Yes, that's right. A bunch of 'classic' TSR adventure modules. Obviously, not first printing or anything but a surprising find nonetheless. And the best part is what I paid for them. $5. And no shipping fees! Not bad on my first day out - and in the middle of the frickin' desert no less.

Ah, the glory, indeed!

So, since then, I've always kept a casual eye out for this Holy Grail, my King Kong so to speak. And recently, I found my second clue.

A little obscure plastic box at a yard sale this past weekend. And inside? About 50 lead minis from '78 and '79 and for only $5. Some awesome dragons, some great Dungeon Delvers, even some of those Grenadier Hirelings. Just as random as a dice roll! Oh yeah, there were dice in there as well.

Now, those 3 LBB are yet elusive, but I feel that I am on the trail. The footprints becoming a bit clearer, the trail more recent.

After all, it's not bagging the beast, but the thrill of the hunt.

Level Titles

One thing that I've always enjoyed quite a bit in everyone's favorite classic fantasy game but is sadly missing in the many iterations of the Retro-Clone Rules are Level Titles. I've always felt that Level Titles added just a bit of color to characters and the game. I mean, what sounds better:

"Greetings, I am Kal'Thak a, 3rd level fighter."

or

"Greetings, I am Kal'Thak the Swordsman!"

It's a very minor element but I think it fleshes out the game. It's one of the things that pulls the game away from just numbers and stats. Whether the players use it or not, I enjoy having it present in my games.

So, to keep Level Titles alive for the character classes in my campaign, we have some of the more familiar titles and a couple of others:

Fighter
1: Veteran
2: Warrior
3: Swordsman
4: Hero
5: Swashbuckler
6: Myrmidon
7: Champion
8: Superhero
9: Lord
10: Lord (10th Level)
11: Lord (11th Level)

Dwarven Warrior
1: Dwarven Veteran
2: Dwarven Warrior
3: Axebearer
4: Vanquisher
5: Guardian
6: Dwarven Hero
7: Dwarven Champion
8: Commander
9: Dwarven Lord
10: Mountain Lord (10th Level)
11: Mountain Lord (11th Level)

Magic-User
1: Medium
2: Evoker
3: Conjurer
4: Theurgist
5: Thaumaturgist
6: Magicician
7: Enchanter
8: Warlock
9: Sorcerer
10: Necromancer
11: Wizard
12: Wizard (12th level)

Viking
1: Nomad
2: Savage
3: Barbarian
4: Berserker
5: Buccaneer
6: Corsair
7: Vindicator
8: Dane
9: Thane
10: Thane Warlord

Cleric
1: Acolyte
2: Adept
3: Priest
4: Curate
5: Perfect
6: Canon
7: Lama
8: Patriarch
9: High Priest
10: High Priest (10th level)
11: High Priest (11th level)

Thieves
1: Rogue (Apprentice)
2: Footpad
3: Cutpurse
4: Robber
5: Burglar
6: Filcher
7: Sharper
8: Magsman
9: Thief
10: Master Thief
11: Master Thief (11th level)

Druid
1: Aspirant
2: Ovate
3: Initiate of the 1st Circle
4: Initiate of the 2nd Circle
5: Initiate of the 3rd Circle
6: Initiate of the 4th Circle
7: Initiate of the 5th Circle
8: Initiate of the 6th Circle
9: Initiate of the 7th Circle
10: Initiate of the 8th Circle
11: Initiate of the 9th Circle
12: Druid
13: Archdruid
14: The Great Druid

Ranger
1: Runner
2: Strider
3: Scout
4: Courser
5: Tracker
6: Guide
7: Pathfinder
8: Ranger
9: Ranger Knight
10: Ranger Lord
11: Ranger Lord (11th level)
12: Ranger Lord (12th level)

To Mini Or Not To Mini

A question indeed!

A couple of recent posts at Chgowiz Old Guy's RPG Blog have got me really thinking about using minis in my game. I haven't yet used minis in our sessions and in fact, I rarely used minis back in the day once I figured out how to play the game correctly. In a practical sense, they always seemed to get in the way of playing, I felt that they became a focal point and distracted one away from the imagination of the game. But, on the other hand, they do look good on the table! But is this a rabbit hole that I really want to go down?

Miniatures in the RPGs that we played disappeared quickly. Some of the players who moved on to wargames continued with miniatures but only in their wargames games, be it fantasy or historical and not the RPGs. It sort of came down to really not needing them to play. Dealing with minis always put a pause in the game action while they needed to be manipulated and placed. This was all before battle mats so even using miniatures, the game was still abstract enough, but a distraction nonetheless. In many instances the original rules mentioned that miniatures were just an optional game aid but for some reason, they have always stuck around.

From Men & Magic (pages 3 & 5)
It is relatively simple to set up a fantasy campaign, and better still, it will cost almost nothing. In fact you will not even need miniature figures, although their occasional employment is recommended for real spectacle when battles are fought.

The use of paper, pencil and map boards are standard. Miniature figures can be added if the players have them available and so desire, but miniatures are not required, only esthetically pleasing; similarly, unit counters can be employed ― with or without figures ― although by themselves the bits of cardboard lack the eye-appeal of the varied and brightly painted miniature figures.

In our current game sessions, we've had some pretty small combats that we were able to just talk through without much of a problem. Our final combat in session 5 was a bit different. It took place in a very large cavern, and PCs and NPCs were scattered all over the place. Once combat began, I think it was a bit hard keeping everything in everybody's heads; what characters were heading in what direction, how far everyone was from what target, speed and distance, etc. I had sketched a map of where everyone was at first, but it was still pretty abstract. Don't get me wrong, the battle moved along nicely and there wasn't much complaint or anything. I think that this would have been an instance where miniatures would have enhanced that portion of the game.

Now if I go that route, I don't want the game to devolve into battle-mats and constant manipulation of the figures. I guess I'm seeing it as just a gaming aid to be used only when needed. But if that's the case, is it worth the effort? The money? The time to paint them? I mean, I do love minis. I love the way they look when they are painted. I love them standing there on the table ready for action but how will this affect the gameplay which I feel has been going pretty well?

I'm still going to mull this over in my head. I've already picked out a handful to purchase and paint but I haven't yet made up my mind. Though I might add that my wife is a bit wary of me going down that path even though she would enjoy painting them as well. Who knows, it may even get her into a game or two?

Evolution of the Old School Revival

There was an interesting post over at the Swords & Wizardry Forums talking about the past, current and future trends of the OSR. I've actually been thinking about this for a while. I think it's a good discussion to have. I mean, we (by we I mean the community as a whole) can't be putting out revisions of the same game over and over again.

The way I see it is that the past few years have been a process of defining what we all enjoyed about the 'classic' style of gaming that has been missing or has been 'forgotten knowledge' for decades now. Things like sandbox, megadungeons and free-form play have sort of fallen into the forgotten corners of gaming. That's not to say that it wasn't out there, it just was forgotten.

So during these past couple of years we got the 'OSR' and all the retro-clones and all the products and blogs and things out there that support these rediscoveries so to speak. It seems to me that we've recreated the atmosphere of the origins of the game, the excitement and explosion of creativity of those times. The trend that I feel it can move into now is evolution. Evolution to what the game (in our vision (and by our I mean the community as a whole)) should/could have evolved into. Moving it into different realms without falling into the traps of complicated and over structured rules yet expanding the original intentions, the freedom and pulp aspects, of the game. I think we are starting to see that with the new 'supplements' that have come out, Carcosa and Majestic Wilderlands as well as Planet Algol and Savage Swords of Athanor and many others. Enhancing the (other) worlds in which the game is played without complicating the (rules of) the game as a whole and keeping the rediscovered elements. I think that's the underlying trend.

There's really no 'bottom-line' or 'investors' that will define the direction. It will be defined by an 'open-source' community whose love and care for the game will direct it's evolution.

We all know where one path leads but I think now is an opportunity to forge a new path. One that could have been taken 30 years ago.

Can D&D Ever Be Played Wrong? - Answered!

Role playing games have become so common place these days that it may be hard to imagine or even remember that there was a time before funny looking dice and charts and rules defined any type of fantasy world. But it was just that way once long ago and when the abstract concepts of Dungeons & Dragons trickled into our consciousness it was something a bit bewildering.....especially to a ten year old boy!

As I've mentioned before, Holmes' Blue Book was my gateway drug, so to speak. Now the only games that I or for that matter my family ever played up to that point were your typical boardgames; a six-sided die or two, a playing board, some game pieces and maybe some cards or fake money. So when I opened the rule book for the first time, that is where I was coming from. I didn't have a big brother that had played the game before, the hobby shop had only just begun carrying the basic game for a couple of months testing the waters (I don't think they even knew what it was but that soon drastically changed), no internet to guide the way, and my parents couldn't believe there was a "game" with a 48 page rule book. I had Holmes' rules and that's it.

It might be argued that the Holmes rule book may have been a bit unclear and contradictory at times, and that is a valid argument, but I have to admit, being only ten years of age, I did pretty good with the rules. I understood rolling up characters and even combat was fairly easy to figure out. Even the descriptive exploration of the dungeons I was able to understand. But what threw me was the concept of Turns and Miniatures.

Games had pieces, right? Miniatures are pieces, correct? Therefore you need minis to play. So my brother and I went out and picked up some minis; some skeletons, a couple of fighters and a five headed hydra (also at our local hobby shop). Those were our game pieces for our game and that's what we played with. My brother's 1st level fighter would always run into the same skeletons and, if he survived that, a five headed hydra! Needless to say, his characters died all the time. It may sound like it wouldn't have been that much fun but it actually was. Oh, did I mention that we also played it on a chess-board? Each square was 10 feet!

So, with characters dying so very often, I read the rules attached to the B1 module "In Search of the Unknown" concerning Henchmen and Hirelings. Ahhh, no more failed battles with that dreaded Hydra! Time to hire an army of men to be paid upon any recovery of treasure, after the fact of course. That eventually began the cycle of Henchmen death. So it was off to the hobby store to buy some more minis and the next thing you know, we had an army of grunts battling skeletons and hydras. Now it was getting interesting!

Now to branch out with some more players.

The only concept of turns I had were with other board games. No one worked together, you competed to win the game and took turns doing so. So when we got the other neighborhood kids together to play this crazy game, game turns played a huge part.

Each player would roll up a character.
Okay, not bad.

That character would hire a virtual army of henchmen.
Hmmm, getting a bit strange now.

And each player would take his character and army of henchmen and explore the dungeon for his turn of 10 minutes. Then, he would stop playing and the next player would take his character and army of henchmen and explore the dungeon for his turn of 10 minutes! This would go on and on for hours. Of course we needed minis for all of this. So we all went out and bought tons of these little lead minis. And if there was a monster in the dungeon that we didn't have a mini for it would be replaced by one that we did have. All of this would eventually lead to one player killing some monsters and finding an over abundance of treasure (don't even get me started on trying to figure out the treasure charts!). This inevitably would bring the players and armies together for one complete classic pulp blow-out battle with the surviving player and henchmen gaining all the loot. Of course, the player would then proceed to kill all his henchmen to take the loot for himself.

It was absurd, yes, but crazy fun for a bunch of little kids.

It wasn't until later that summer that some of us joined a introductory game at the hobby shop (by this point they went from a typical hobby shop with models, etc. to a full fledged gaming store circa 1978) where we experienced the correctly played game for the first time. Oh boy, did things click! All the little odds and ends suddenly fell into place. We were all even more excited than we were before.

So, can D&D ever be played wrong? Looking back on it now, I don't think so. We just took what we understood and made up our own game. In other words, we "imagined the hell out of it". And that is part of the spirit of the game!

In Search Of The Unknown: The Illustrated Story of a Doomed Expedition

One of the things I loved about the classic TSR D&D adventure modules were the illustrations. It always seemed to me that the illustrators would tell a tale of the dungeon delvers within the pages of the module; tales of treasure, monsters, dangers and death.

Many player's first module adventure was B1 In Search of the Unknown and the tale told in those David Sutherland III illustrations is of classic D&D flavor.

You'll see that we have our trusty wizard, complete with pointy hat, along with his young and inexperienced adventurer seeking men of arms to delve the mysterious Quasqueton in search of Zelligar the Unknown's mystic secrets! Yes the risk is great but the challenge cannot be ignored!Having banded together a diverse group of adventurers and with spirits high, the party sets off to find the fabled 'Q' on the wizard's map. What can possibly go wrong with such a hardy group such as this? Archer? Check! Dwarf? Check! 10 foot pole? Check! Note the full fantasy flair of the shining knight and the fairy castle. Ahh, those first few years of of RPG innocence.


After days of travel and searching, a heavily forested hilltop pokes through the trees and a lone watchtower is spotted. Could this be the fabled Quasqueton? Note that this little remembered fact about a watch tower has, surprisingly, never been expanded upon from any one of our creative Grognards.
UPDATED: Restless corrected me on this assumption and posted this link to the tower.


An initial foray into the chambers and corridors under the mountain reveals some tantalizing trinkets but, alas, the treasure was but an illusion broken by a touch of the hand.
Upon seeking the exit, our first group of adventurers discovers a most extraordinary find. A chamber filled with a rainbow of molds and fungi! What wonders this deserted stronghold hides. Tomorrow a delve deeper into these depths!

The second foray into the mysterious stronghold of Quasquenton unveils more of it's mysteries! A wizard's laboratory! A cat suspended in a jar? Wait! Don't open that!

A wrong turn and our party is trapped! Strength alone will not save them. 'Tis the skills of the tiny halfling who escapes and finds the trigger to open the portcullis.Out of the shadows battles are fought. Our party is whittled down to four souls. More corridors explored and doors opened. An expansive room filled with mysterious pools. What's that sound!?!

More horrors wandering the halls! Down to only three now. Give up? What of Zelligar's secrets? Just one more door.....
Plummeted to the caverns below, trapped and hopelessly lost, the party faces horrors unimagined! One by one the warriors all fall until the lone wizard is left searching in vain for the way back to the surface. Doomed to his fate the wizard faces his final foe!
Okay, so a TPK. What more did you expect from a bunch of 1st level explorers?

It Was 30 Years Ago...

Has it really been that long? Indeed, it has.

The Christmas of 79' brought memories of the monstrous Chicago blizzard from earlier that year and delivered to me the next evolution in my gaming history.

Yes, that started with TSR's Dungeon Master's Guide. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. And despite my falling math grades (I was just drawing dungeons in class) my parents picked up the guide that set a standard for all rule-books to come.

I was looking forward to the "Advanced" version of the game, that's what everyone was moving towards at the time. I even had the TSR S2 module 'White Plume Mountain'. Though I had been playing Holmes 'basic' for the past year and playing it wrong for the first six months, I felt that it was time I moved up with the big boys, I felt that I was an 'Advanced' D&D player.

Well, of course, as a youngster, I was overwhelmed with all the rules. What I think I really wanted was the Player's Handbook which had details of all the different character races and classes. But I was, at this time, still acting as DM for my friends who were just starting to follow my lead so it was the DM guide for me. The hard book cover screamed "I'm an Advanced gamer now, so enter at your own risk!"

Though the 1st ed Advanced books are fantastic and classic aspects of the game, I have always found those rules to be too heavy. I would always go back to Holmes, sprinkling a bit of the Advanced rules in here and there. The simplicity of the rules are what kept me there. We played D&D religiously the next year, but 1980 would introduced new games to my universe.

Dan O'Bannon, Alien and Intruder

This past Saturday, over at Lamentations of a Flame Princess, I learned that screenwriter Dan O'Bannon passed on. I grew up with many of his films including Alien, Heavy Metal and Dark Star, which he made with John Carpenter and Ron Cobb (set designer for Conan the Barbarian). He was one of the first handful of film creators that I began to follow during my formative years.

I begged my parents to take me to see Alien back in '79 and that movie scared the pants off of me! It continues to be, IMHO, the greatest Sci-Fi horror film ever made and sets a bar that has yet to be surpassed.

This brought to mind a little game that I enjoyed playing back then called Intruder put out by Task Force Games. The game was based on the Alien concept of an Intruder on board a space station that goes through metamorphosis and becomes more powerful and harder to kill (possibly even cloning itself) as the game goes on. It is a race against time as the Intruder becomes immune to the weapons that the members of the crew have or can build. And to make matters worse, all the animals from the science lab have escaped making that much harder to track down the real Intruder!

This was a great little game, one of many from Task Force Games that I played back in the day. Simple to play, very fast paced, and filled with enough randomness to make every game a unique experience. If things looked bleak, you can even escape on one of two shuttle crafts, but watch out, the Intruder may have hidden aboard!


It was a thrilling little game inspired by a great film written by a very talented screen writer. Dan O'Bannon will be missed by his films will always inspire.