Greyhawk's Paladin

It's always wise to check your facts before putting anything in writing.

This is good counsel, as, in the case of my earlier post, on the Paladin, my thinking was wrong. While I presumed the Paladin first appeared in AD&D, she actually appears in Supplement I: Greyhawk, in 1976, two years prior to the AD&D Players Handbook.

In Greyhawk, the Paladin is not really a class of its own. It has no separate experience table, nor does it have any of the intermediate named levels that mark the other classes. Instead, a figher can, if she has a Charisma of 17 or higher, and is lawful from the commencement of play, opt to pursue Paladinhood. The Greyhawk Supplement is vague on the method of attaining this station.

The actual text from the Supplement.

"In addition, certain lawful fighters may opt to become paladins."

"Charisma scores of 17 or greater by fighters indicate the possibility of paladin status IF THEY ARE LAWFUL from the commencement of play for that character. If such fighters elect to they can then become paladins..."

The text goes on to chronicle the restrictions and advantages of this station, much of which appears in the AD&D Players Handbook.

It's interesting to again discover that much of what appeared in AD&D was already in OD&D, in primitive form.

I'm still not a fan of the class as written, though. Not even in OD&D.

Resource Cards Progress

I do want to assure you, I have not abandoned my resource cards project.

Unfortunately, this project just keeps growing. I'm now up to some 1200 potential resource cards and counting.

I have roughly 100 armor cards near completion, and about the same number of gem and coin cards.

I am trying to put the finishing touches on at least a couple of cards each day. Once I get my first card sheet completed (probably one of the armor sheets) I intend to jpeg and post it.

Dragon Warriors RPG: Magic Users

On Monday, I posted regarding Magic User fantasy tropes. I like the fantasy tropes in Magic Realm, as they seem grounded in common understandings of what each magic user type represents in fantasy fiction and common word usage.

I should preface this post by saying that I like Dragon Warriors RPG. I remember seeing it back in the mid-to-late 80's, as a friend's aunt would send him this kind of stuff all the time from the UK. Back then, I thought Dragon Warriors was fresh and innovative. While I don't have quite the same feeling about it today, I still like the atmosphere, and the different take on combat and magic items.

The approach to defining magic user classes leaves me cold, however.

For one thing, the name-classes of magic user seemed neither accurate nor terribly familiar. Perhaps they were going for unfamiliar. I don't see that as a particularly effective way to draw new players: at least at the beginning, I presume you want the game to be immediately appealing, familiar and intuitive, to encourage buy-in by the players and referee. After achieving that, it makes sense to mix things up a little. Of course, i'm no game designer so what do I know?

Dragon Warriors RPG has four classes of magic users. Elementalist, Sorcerer, Mystic and Warlock.

In DWRPG, Warlocks are defined as magic users who use their magic to enhance their combat prowess. I presume this is akin to the more aptly-named Swordmages of D&D 3.5. But common usage and fantasy tropes surrounding the term Warlock define it as a male witch, imagined to have special powers derived from the devil.

In DWRPG, Mystics are defined as magic users who are attuned to nature, or to the power of the mind. Again, in D&D, these characters might by Druids or Psionicists. Common usage of the term Mystic however, has overtly religious connotations, often meaning someone who practices occult rights or has knowledge of religious mysteries, which seems more suited to a Priestly or Clerical class.

DWRPG defines Sorcerers as those who draw energy from other dimensions to fuel their spells. This might seem like a run-of-the-mill magic user, but the term Sorcerer again has a definite "black magic" connotation that do not mesh with the definition for the class used in DWRPG.

Finally, the Elementalist class is a very specialized magic user class, that harnesses the raw elements (fire, water, air, earth, darkness) to cast spells. I suppose this could be the pyromancers and other elemental based magic users of the more modern fantasy gaming. This is a fantasy trope that I have little familiarity with, and it therefore failes to evoke any imagery for me, which is important for me as a fantasy tropes enthusiast.

I like Dragon Warriors RPG. It has an interesting, if perhaps too derivative, gameworld, and great atmosphere, to name just a few of the features that I find appealing.

I'm no fan of its magic user classes, however.

What To Do While Visiting The Magic Realm

Magic Realm is a boardgame / roleplaying game hybrid. It uses a set of hexagonal tiles to create a random world map, within which you spend your time adventuring. Since the map is put together by the players prior to play, each time you play, the map will be different, as will the location of the monsters, treasures, and inhabitants.

So what can you do, while visiting the Magic Realm? One of the interesting things about this game is that all of the players can win. That is because, at the beginning of the game, you secretly determine what your objectives are. If, at the end of the game, you meet your objectives, you win.

The objectives are broken down into five categories.

(1) Find ancient Treasure. There are many treasure troves hidden throughout the mountains, forests and caves of the Realm. You can choose the discovering and looting of those treasure troves as your objective. The Dwarf might choose this objective.

(2) Discover new spells. This objective is often taken by the more powerful magic users. There are spell books and other items that supply spells scattered throughout the land. You can spend your time in the Realm trying to locate and learn new spells. The Magician, Sorcerer or Wizard might pursue this option.

(3) Become famous. Killing monsters and undertaking quests can score you fame points. Some players will go monster hunting. or assist the inhabitants of the Realm, to establish their characters' reputations. The White Knight, Pilgrim or Captain might choose this route.

(4) Become notorious. A player can, alternatively, have their character roam the land, wantonly killing monsters, inhabitants AND OTHER CHARACTERS alike, in which case, they would score notoriety points. Characters like the Black Knight, the Witch or the Witch King (Warlock) might choose this objective.

(5) Become rich. There are lots of lost treasures in the Realm. Players can locate those treasures, sell them to the inhabitants, and retire in style. This is an option for any of the characters.

Magic Realm is a game where cooperation and competition are both viable strategies. There are certain characters, such as the Black Knight, Swordsman or the Elf, who cannot be trusted to cooperate (their game-designed "personalities" make it disadvantageous for them to form any long-term alliances, it is easier for them to win by competing). On the other hand, there are certain characters who, when working in concert, can achieve far more than they could individually (for example, the Amazon and the Dwarf).

With so many characters, board combinations, and game objectives, it would take a long time to exhaust all of the possibilities of this role-playing adventure game.

Old School Monsters: Snurre Ironbelly

WOTC's Giants of Legend D&D Miniatures Set probably represents the zenith of WOTC's miniature production quality, and contains some of the more iconic D&D personality miniatures. This is sad, considering it was only the 4th of 17 miniatures sets, prior to them changing their miniatures set format. In my opinion, subsequent miniatures sets never met the high standards created with the Giants of Legend set of miniatures.

Case in Point: King Snurre Ironbelly, the BBEG from the final module in the classic "G" series of early D&D adventures. Few miniatures could be more iconic than the heroes, and evil leaders, from the early modules. Not only did WOTC capture the feel of the original G3 artwork in this pose, but the paint-job is first rate.

Now compare this to the Aspect of Vecna, found in the fairly recent Dangerous Delves set of miniatures. Considering how iconic to the D&D mythos Vecna is (Hand and Eye of Vecna, Vecna Lives, Die Vecna Die, and Vecna Reborn), you would think they would have lavished more care and attention to that sculpt, and the related paint-job.

Tales of the Bizarre: Dat's My Leg!

Why, oh why, did I not buy this game when I saw it at The Sentry Box, lo these 20 years ago. According to BGG, the game description is as follows.

"The Trollsome game of Bodybuilding. Trolls are stupid! I mean , really, really thick. Quite often, they leave bits of themselves lying around in troll holes. A troll almost never notices he has lost a leg or even his head! He soon grows a new one anyway, so he doesn't care two hoots! Players move their Gobbos around the board, trying to collect enough "Troll Bitz" to make 2 complete trolls.
From a line of 4 kids games Games Workshop Ltd. released so that the kids would have something to play while you and your mates played Warhammer. Each included a Trollish Tunes tape which included silly songs sung by Trolls."

Retroclones: How The Original White Box Got It Right

I've become a big fan of old-school gaming.

I started playing D&D back in the late 70's, and followed the game as it progressed through its various incarnations.

When the original AD&D manuals came out, I quickly abandoned the old D&D to play the new and improved version. In fact, I scorned the later B, X, DA, and other "basic" Dungeons and Dragons material, thinking them suited only for those whose tastes were not yet refined enough to graduate to the better (advanced) rules. I followed D&D through 2nd Edition, where I began to lose interest, D&D 3.0 and 3.5, where it just became too complicated, and into 4E, for which I had high hopes ...

Having now returned to the old-school style of gaming, making use of the retro-clones appeals to me, for several reasons. First, I sold my original D&D boxed set, so the actual rules from the original set is largely unavailable to me (I do still have a copy of Greyhawk, though it's usefulness is limited due to the absence of the original three little brown books). Second, the editors of the retro-clones have done an admirable job of clarifying the original rules. Third, the retro-clone rules are available in pdf form, so it is fairly easy to obtain copies.

Of the retro-clones, my preference leans towards Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry. White box and OSRIC are appealing, although I prefer to use OSRIC as a resource rather than a rule-set, and White Box, while tempting, just feels a little too light (I quite enjoy the optional rules sidebars in that retro-clone however). I have heard some love for Spellcraft & Swordplay, but have not yet investigated that rule-set.

The one thing that the original White Box has over the retro-clones is the separation of materials into players' and gamemasters' books. From a publishing point of view, I suppose it makes sense to include the entire rule-set into one book. However, from a gaming point of view, particularly when trying to introduce new players to the original D&D, I would much prefer to have separate players' manuals and gamemasters' manuals.

It may just be me, but I still think part of the enjoyment of role-playing games is that the players do not to have perfect knowledge of the rules of the universe, nor about the monsters and treasures that are to found as they explore their game environment. I know one can split the Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry pdfs fairly easily, to create a players document, but if the editors intend to publish paper versions, I would love to see those published as separate players' and gamemasters' booklets.

The Dungeoneer RPG Cover

Here is the "in-development" Dungeoneer RPG Cover. I like it.

Dungeoneer RPG and Magic Realm

I am quite interested in trying out the Dungeoneer RPG once it is published. It sounds like an interesting "rules-light" fantasy role playing game.

I just noticed some interesting (if not terribly deep) similarities between Magic Realm and Dungeoneer RPG.

1. Both use fight, magic and move as their core abilities.

2. Both have very similar covers, of a party of adventurers battling a dragon on the right side of the illustration.

I promise to write something a little more profound later.

:)

Spell-casters and Fantasy Tropes

I like fantasy tropes, as they tend to create a shorthand that allows players to immediately understand character and context, without going into a great amount of detail.

Fantasy tropes can be tricky though, as sometimes what you think is a clear fantasy trope is not necessarily shared by all RPG players.

The Magic Realm game has several magic-using characters to choose from. Those include the Sorcerer, the Wizard, the Witch King, the Magician, the Witch, the Woodsgirl, the White Knight, the Elf, the Pilgrim and the Druid.

To me, there is a clear shorthand (fantasy trope) attached to each of those magic using characters. I'm not so sure that shorthand is shared by others, however. Here are the Magic Realm fantasy tropes, as I see them.

The "Wizard" is your typical Gandalf Character.
The "Elf" is a woodland sprite, playing sometimes deadly tricks on passers-by.
The "Sorcerer" is akin to the Sorceress in Sleeping Beauty.
The "Witch King" (Warlock) is attuned to the demonic, infernal powers.
The "Witch" is the same, but is the female equivalent, and has a black cat and flying broom.
The "Magician" is a dabbler in magic, doing simple tricks and occasionally stumbling onto powerful magic.
The "Woodgirl" is a friend to the woodland sprites, and is given access to their magic.
The "White Knight" is a Paladin, deriving holy power from on high, when he earns it.
The "Pilgrim" is a Cleric, who takes up a weapon to defend the faith when the need arises.
The "Druid" carries a sickle or dagger to harvest herbs, and derives his power from the natural world.

I find each of those characters to be clear fantasy tropes.

On the other hand, the Dragon Warriors RPG has four magic using characters. I find the magic using characters in that game to lack clarity as fantasy tropes, compared to the Magic Realm magic characters. Those Dragon Warriors RPG magic-using characters are Elementalist, Sorcerer, Mystic, and Warlock.

What do those four words mean to you, in terms of fantasy tropes? Interestingly, Dragon Warriors RPG has no Cleric-equivalent character (just in case you were thinking the Mystic was some kind of holy person!)