Redbeard's Ravings

There have been a number of blog posts lately on universal mechanics. If I may, I'd like to present some guidelines to follow BEFORE you tell your players to roll. Now, I'm a fan of universal mechanics and feel they're one thing from latter permutations of DnD to import into old school play. However, a universal mechanic has some pitfalls. I say this as a DM that has played those latter permutations and is now running a game that harkens back to old school ways. I try to challenge the players, not just the characters. As a DM, I like the convenience and freedom of deciding how difficult a task is and having a framework to place that in. The essential elements of the framework are a scale of difficulties (including opposed checks) and measurement of character ability. During play this means that I can concentrate on creating, listening and adjudicating without pausing the game to look up a rule. The players also don't need to be confused unduly and have some expec...

As I've posted before , I've been disappointed with how ordinary the Wychwood encounters seemed as depicted in the Yggsburgh hardback. I've tried to flavor it more with fey quality ala Midsummer Night's Dream. For players in Yggsburgh, there is a one very big unstated spoiler from the Yggsburgh hardback. Nearly all the rest of the adventure is my own creation or my own import from other sources. The players seemed to enjoy the puzzle solving and negotiation challenges that the evening entailed. Having had bad experiences on both sides of riddle situations, I picked a riddle that was hopefully easy to solve for the six players; the alternative would be that a party of level 2-4 would have to fight an ettin. They did have the idea from the ettin's size and description that they didn't really want to fight the ettin, but they had alternatives besides the riddle; getting the heads to argue and running away. Fighting was certainly a choice - one that surely woul...

The bogus boo is a creature who comes out at night, and why? He likes the air, he likes to scare the nervous passer-by! He has two wings - pathetic things - with which he cannot fly. His tusks are fierce, yet could not pierce the softest butterfly. He has two ears , but what he hears is very faint and small. And with his claws on his four paws he cannot scratch at all. He looks too wise with his owl eyes, his aspects grim and ghoulish. But truth to tell, he sees not well and is distinctly foolish. The bogus boo - what can he do, but huffle in the dark? So don't take fright: he has no bite, and very little bark! by James Reeves Frequency: Rare No. Appearing: 1, possibly 2 (mated pair) Armor Class: 8 (1E) 12 (C&C) Move: 20" Hit Dice: 2 % in Lair: 50 % Treasure Type: See below No. of Attacks: 2 Damage/Attack: 1-2 Special Attacks: Surprise, Fright, Mistaken Identity Special Defenses: Dark Vision Magic Resistance: Standard Intelligence: Low Saves: P (C&C) Alignment: Neu...

Magical Items: Not Another +1 Sword As campaigns advance, a common complaint is that magical items become 'less magical'. Another +1 sword would just be another item in the fighter's golf caddy. I've written before about ways to make each item unique based on its origin . I still try to use those ideas, but I think I should consider the level of the maker of the item as well. This should result in more potions and scrolls of varying types being found, and permanent magical items being rarer and more treasured. Another aspect of single use items is that they reward smart play. A permanent magical item is always on and available regardless of whether the character is informed and aware of the challenge. But because single use items require an action to use, the characters that play D&D like it is a game of exploration instead of a series of inter-connected tactical combats will be prepared and able to make the choice to use their potions and scrolls. In both AD...

Below after my comments is a session report written by one of the players in our Castle Zagyg sandbox campaign. I placed the Matt Finch's Pod Caverns in the Little Hillwood, a side trek away from the Castle, and I've talked about how I've adapted it before in the changing sandbox world. It's acquired quite the reputation for toughness from the players. The session report and my comments contain spoilers. They've really explored very little of the caverns, which has been personally disappointing. There's some old school goodness there that they've missed. In their first expedition they blithely found themselves on the 2nd level in the prison chamber/mulching room. After wards they took that same path - and further right to the Shroom's complex of rooms... skipping floating heads, glowing fungus and other such oddities. They may yet go back since they realize they've missed treasure. The other entrance to the pod caverns, which they've not ...

Matt and I are co-DMing a campaign of Castle Zagyg. It is set in Greyhawk, using Yggsburgh as another independent city in the area. The wiki for the campaign is at Obsidian Portal . We started it by taking over DMing duties in a 1E AD&D campaign of which we were 2 of 8 players. The whys and whynots of switching to Castles and Crusades are worth post that I may yet write. I was inspired by The West Marches Campaign and memories of my first experiences playing Dungeons and Dragons in a sprawling sandbox campaign also co-DMed. Having players that were turned away from the initial campaign because of a lack of table space, we expanded the campaign to a second session. Each are played every other week. So far we have 13 players, one more to start. Some have multiple characters, and the DMs also play when they aren't DMing, for a total of 20 characters.