Red Box, Nostalgia and the OSR

My D&D Basic books or more precisely my Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal booklets are some of my most cherished gaming materials in my collection. To my best estimate I began playing D&D after school, in the library when I was twelve years old. For Christmas that year, my Mother bought the Basic (Red Box) for my sister and me. By the time we returned to school from Winter break, I had already run the materials in the book and begun writing my own adventures, crafting maps and planning epic quests to save the worlds. By that Summer I discovered Star Frontiers and between the two games, my life was changed forever.

The release of the 4th edition Red Box brought about a flood of emotions and memories. I guess that's how nostalgia marketing works. Wizards invoked these feelings by reminding us of how much fun we had when we gamed with the original Red Box. They hoped to rekindle those old feelings and get you to buy the new package and get interested in the new game. It worked, I bought it, but not for nostalgia, per se. I still play and I teach new players too. I think its best to teach the most easily accesible version of the game to ease the transition from "noob" to community member.

The OSR (Old School Reformation) is a gamer movement that's growing across the blogo-verse. You see, a lot of what we accept as cliche in our games today was actually new back when Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson were kicking around the ideas of Heroes taking missions separate from their wargaming armies. All seems pretty simple nearly 40 years later. But, back then, it was quite a paradigm shift. The movement is pushing for gamers to do more of the DIY (Do It Yourself) type projects that we did when the rules were less codified.

Look at it this way. Before there were rules for skills, it was assumed that a PC could do whatever the Player and DM agreed he could. Now that we have a skill system, if you don't buy the skill, you don't have it or you don't have it at any effective level. Likewise, the tactical combat systems of the modern versions of the game take quite a bit away from the old school, all-in-the-mind's-eye combat resolution. Once upon a time, players would look around the battlefield asking questions of what their characters could see. Often these details were made up on the fly. The combat that unfolded was a wild melee, remembered through glimpses of awsome deeds. Today we move tokens and take effects, but seldom do my players describe what their characters are doing. Most likely they just tell me where they are moving, what their minor action is and what power they are using. It used to be more fun, before the system defined so much of what happens at the table.

My solution? Take what you want from the game. You bought it. It's yours. If your gaming becomes painful, bothersome or un-fun, then leave the table, find something else to do with your time and money. Really. It's a game! It should be entertaining. It doesnt matter how you play, nor what game you play. Play it to have fun, play it for the social engagement factor. Do it because you wnat to.

Game on my friends. May all your hits be crits!!!

Vampire: The Masquerade / D&D 4e Mash-Up

Since the first time Gary and Dave (the sacred Saints of our beloved hobby and industry) first dreamt that the actions of the battlefront hero were somehow as equally important as the actions of the squad, platoon, company battalion, etc - we have lived in interesting times.

I left High School in 1990, so the games of the late 80's and early 90's left the greatest impact on me. Of course, D&D is my first love. We met at the local library when I was in elementary school. She was this adorable Choose Your Own Adventure (or maybe Pick A Path) book. I was young, impressionable and possessed of a great imagination. She had me at hello. But I digress.

Though this post is about D&D (yes, you Honey :), it is also about another game, a darker game, that turned our assumptions about the villain 90 degrees out of phase (can you Grok it?). She was Vampire: The Masquerade, and her family was White Wolf and they were amazing.

Recently my weekly gamers were snooping about underground, far beneath the town of Dyvers on the Nyr Dyv. You see, dragons had attacked the town, hundreds of dragons. The humanoids of the place decided that that survival and running below ground, were better than fighting and dying. My heroes fought some neat werewolves (actually were-wolf/human hybrids Werewolf: the Apocalypse I'm looking at you Sweetie!). Then it occurred to me that a run in with World of Darkness vampires could result in a cool night of gaming.

Back in the long ago days of my youth, when I could literally spend entire days doing nothing but gaming and game prep, I developed a love for system conversions. Today I think the crazy kids call it a mash-up. But I used to convert all kinds of stuff. E.G. - My laser pistol wielding D&D fighters in Star Frontiers, the Epic Car Wars race around the Isle of Dread and even the night my RECON squad cleared the monsters out of the castle in that classic AD&D adventure The Gauntlet. All this to say that bringing the V:tM vampires to D&D would not be challenging, it would be fun.

I started by reviewing the various clans and the most common powers of each from the V:tM core book (from about 1990). Then I read through the descriptions of the various powers and how they "looked" during game play.

So, I chose a level based on the PC level at the time, I think they were 6th. Reading about the Nosferatu Clan, it seemed they weren't really combat monsters like the Gangrel or the Brujah. But the "ugly" tag developed into so ugly that enemies within a square of the Nos, would take a -2 on attack rolls. Now that pretty darned ugly. Looking at the cool things the Animalism power confers at various levels, I created the Call of the Wild power. Basically this power, a rechargeable because of its punishing 3d10+5 damage at range 10 and burst 3. An at-will at that power load-out would have been

unbalanced. Vampires have been known for their mighty strength for a long time. I couldn't let the Nos punk-out in melee, so I gave him a powerful At-Will melee basic - Strength of Ten Men. The Vanish power was based on the V:tM Obfuscate; the way it reads in the original material is that the Vampire just disappears while it's enemies are stunned and look about in confusion. The skills, were the finishing touch, again based upon reading through the original V:tM core rule book, coupled with my DM-Mind of how a Vampire should be equipped for tangling with my PC's.

The coolness of V:tM vampires was only augmented by the mystical qualities of their blood. Including the Blood Bond and the ability to create Ghouls. So my subterranean Vampires of Moloko Fortress had a small army of ghouls. Enjoy!

Making maps and using maps

I'm an Old School gamer so number 2 pencil on 1/4 inch grid, 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches long is my favorite medium when making maps. Mapmaking is one of my all time favorite things to do regarding rpg's. I love mapping cities, and dungeons and castles, and even entire worlds. When I get an idea for a great new setting, I start with the places, then I develop the Organizations based on the places, then the key NPC's come about as parts of the organizations.

When I run my game I use a 1 inch grid 22 inches by 25 inches battlemat. I put a sheet of PVC over that to preserve my mat. This allows me to put really cool full color maps and dungeon tiles under the PVC, then mark the plastic to show additional features, spell effects and fallen creatures who become difficult terrain.

To facilitate use of my prepped maps, I draw the encounter areas at 1/4 inch = 5 feet. Then during play that becomes 1 inch = 5 feet. This allows to me scale quite simply to use old school maps (1/4" = 10 feet becomes 1/2 inch = 10 feet). Also I don't create maps that will render larger than my play area. I keep the action on the battlemat. None of my encounter areas will be larger than 22 inches by 25 inches. However, I can fit a lot of encounter into that limited space.

As the Heroes headed west from Greyhawk, they eventually found a traffic jam of several dozen wagons and carts as well as nearly a hundred humanoids all styimied by a bridge that washed out in a recent thunderstorm. Furthermore, they're told by a helpful bard that a band of kobolds are holed up in caves beneath the wreckage of the bridge. As the heroes navigate the muddy bank, they fall under fire of the kobolds. The heroes, however, quickly identify their targets and press the attack, first at range then in melee.

The heroes fight the kobolds, a troll and eventually a band of Hobgoblins representing a local thieves' guild.

These are the map symbols I learned when I was playing D&D out of the original Red Box. These are also the map symbols listed in the most recent Dungeon Master's Guide.

Let me know if you have any questions.

May all your Hits Be Crits!!

Prepping for the game; D&D 4e / Vampire: the Masquerade re-skinned

I have accumulated a sizable gaming library through the years. Though my current group of players are pretty much genre purisits, I can sneak in a cross-genre reference or two without breaking the suspension of disbelief - if I carefully reskin the presentation and hide the origin point.

Two weeks ago, our brave Heroes of Greyhawk fled from the dragons invading the town of Dyvers; they fled because they knew they could not defeat an entire flight of hundreds of dragons. They went to a place near Dyvers, called the Halfling Warrens; a third of which is on the surface, the other two-thirds are below ground, a series of subteranean rooms, meeting halls, warehouses, dormatories, printshops, etc. Now the heroes are bravely fighting Argentum the Werewolf Lord. One hero is down and has failed two Death Saves already. I anticipate about 50% casualties, but a win for the surviving party members.

They don't realize it yet, but they are in the Shadowfell and having decided against hiring a guide to get them back to the surface... they are lost! Now the fun begins.

While perusing my old game collection I happened upon my worn first edition copy of Vampire: The Masquerade. And I thought, yeah, vampires in the Shadowfell, that's exciting - an entire fortress of vampires, and ghoul servants and several pens of surface dwelling "cattle" captured as they fled from Dyvers. I decided to create several vampires in D&D 4e stats. First, I created a list of all the clans in that book a paltry seven clans, if you don't count the Caitiff. And really, who counts the Caitiff anyway? Then broke down a list of the Disciplines most closely associated with each of those clans. Working from that list, I crafted an undead creature, using a Monster Builder vampire as my template.

While listening to Pandora last night, I discovered Molok, and named the vampire fortress after them. I'm putting finishing touches on the map now and still have stat out the Gangrel and Brujah defenders as well as the Toreador Prince and his entourage. I think this will be a good time.

"Gary's World" - Greyhawk

According to the Wikipedia article about the World of Greyhawk the world began "as a simple dungeon under a castle that Gary designed to entertain family and friends." Greyhawk is the world I most associate with AD&D, the game my friends and I played throughout high school in the 80's. Many of the non-campaign specific adventures of the era were by default set in Greyhawk. To me Greyhawk feels like "home." So when our group started to think about a setting for our brand new Essentials campaign, naturally, I pitched Greyhawk.

The campaign began as the heroes returned to Highport, a fortified trade city on the wooly bay. They had been aiding a merchant sailing ship, whose route had been under attack by pirates for some time. The ship they were paid to protect was robbed and sunk by pirates, but the heroes were pulled from the water and safely taken home. Their patron, a wealthy merchant with ties to Greyhawk's leading council - the Circle of Eight, explained that he had a friend - a powerful artificer, who needed a highly trained band of retainers for a sailing voyage to the city of Greyhawk. The catch was that the artificer in question had crafted an elementally driven sailing ship (a side wheeler steam ship essentially) that could reduce the sailing time to Greyhawk from two weeks to just five days. The prototype called the Lady Marian, needed protection against possible theft, while the passengers, nobles from along the Wild Coast, needed to be protected from each other. To keep his noble passengers entertained, the artificer devised a dicing tournament, with a massive blue diamond as the prize.

Along the way, a handfull of sidetreks taught the heroes that the Wild Coast was a politically volatile place. As they began to settle in to a regular watch and sleep cycle aboard ship, the nobles started turning up dead.

Once I had the players' attention and they were headed toward Greyhawk, I kept the tension high. There was a hidden assassin somewhere on the ship, a mishap lead to an explosion in the engine room, then tiny piles of colored dust started appearing whenever someone went missing.

Once the ship arrived in Greyhawk, several sessions later, I reviewed the character backgrounds and really started to play up their plothooks.

Old School 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Campaign

I mark my return to the blogosphere discussing my ongoing 4th edition D&D campaign set in Greyhawk.

For various reasons my players (Angie, Brian, David, Edd and Mike) wanted a new campaign and they wanted to "try-out" Essentials. So I decided to give them an old school campaign with the newest D&D rule set available.

My Greyhawk campaign was originally set to be a swashbuckling escapade of high seas adventure, then through conversations with my players, I discovered that they don't really like pirate adventure. I was a bit crestfallen by this unfortunate change. However, I pressed on.

Collectively we have more than 100 years of gaming experience at the table on Sunday evenings. That being said, it is imperative for such a discerning gaming group that a) I do not railroad the story by means of a linear plotline, b) I include plot elements from all the playercharacter's (PC's) backgrounds and c) I keep the challenge level high (we have a mantra at our table: "go hard or go home!") all while offering a good mix of encounter types (skill challenge, combat and roleplaying).

The heroes started at 3rd level and they had already been adventuring together six months of game time. These two pieces together allowed us to sidestep the often painful process of getting PC's to trust eachother in life and death situations when absolute strangers really don't have a real-world (RW) reason to do so.

I'll be using this space to post maps, story ideas and even full encounters as the campaign progresses.