This is what passes for WOTC market research these days

Unintended Effects

One of the unintended effects of other OSR bloggers abandoning their blogs is that spammers are quick to adopt the former site for their own ends, complete with built-in followers.  Countdown To Game Time was a great little D&D blog that went off the air and has now been turned into a spammer blog for, i'm guessing, some sort of online poker website.

It's probably not just me, but i'm finding it difficult to remove myself from those blogs once one of the spammers takes over.  There's a bug in blogger that is preventing my from accessing my Manage Blogs feature so I can remove myself, a bug that I have politely mentioned to blogger but seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

I mention this because, in trying to remove several of these now-spammer blogs from my reading list, I unintentionally BLEW UP MY ENTIRE INTERNATIONAL BLOGGERS LIST.

My apologies to my many fellow-travellers.  If you would like me to re-add you to my "re-built" international bloggers list, please comment to this post with your blog address.

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EDIT: By International Bloggers, I mean non-Canadian bloggers.  Also, if there any Canadian DnD bloggers that are not on my Canadian list, please let me know.

Arthurian Heroes In Deities and Demigods

I am confident that the first and last illustrations are by Jeff Dee. Anyone care to hazard a guess as to the identity of the illustrator for the 1980 Deities and Demigods Arthurian Heroes?

  

Magical Boots

There are five boots treasures scattered throughout Avalon Hill's Magic Realm, to be found in the monsters' treasure hoards and natives' possessions.

Like the gloves treasures (providing their owners with fatigue-free attacks and other benefits), magical boots treasures provide their users with fatigue-free movement.

That is of particular value during combat, as combat is where fatigue is usually suffered.


The first set of boots is the Elven Slippers. When equipped, they provide the wearer with the equivalent of a light move chit with a speed of 2 (remembering that a move speed of 1 is fastest).

Many of the light characters, like the Elf, Woodsgirl or the Swordsman, already have an L2 move chit. However, that move chit may be played only with some effort. That additional effort is denoted by the existence of "effort stars" on that character's move chit.

For example, those three characters may have an L2* or L2** move chit. The single star means the move is somewhat fatiguing, while the double star means the move is very fatiguing. The possession and donning of the Elven Slippers, then, allows those characters to avoid fatigue when performing that speedy move.

Others, like the Druid, Magician and Witch, have no L2 move chit at all. The Elven Slippers are of enormous benefit to them.

The Elven Slippers are only good for light characters, carrying only light equipment. The Elven Slippers cannot be employed if the character is a medium character, or if the light character is carrying medium or heavier equipment or treasure.


When worn, the Shoes of Stealth provide the wearer with a light move with a speed of 3. Though not as fast as the Elven Slippers, the Shoes of Stealth provide the wearer with another benefit: allowing the player to roll one die, instead of 2, when attempting to hide.

In Magic Realm, every dice-roll is made with two six-sided dice, with the higher of the two numbers used to determine success. Since lower numbers are better, only rolling one die on in-game attempts improves your chances. In this case, since a 1 through 5 means you successfully hide, and a 6 means you fail, the Shoes of Stealth improve your chances of hiding, on a single attempt, from 70% to 84%.

Again, only light characters, carrying light equipment, can wear the Shoes of Stealth. However, they are the ones who most need an improved chance of hiding, since they generally rely on hiding and fleeing from, rather than battling, the monsters of the Magic Realm.


The Quick Boots are useful for light and medium characters alike.

With a medium move and a speed of 3, light characters will appreciate the additional carrying capacity this set of boots affords, while the medium characters will find the speed of 3, with no fatigue, of great benefit.

Most medium characters, like the Amazon, Captain, Pilgrim and Wizard, can all benefit from wearing the Quick Boots. Both the Amazon and Captain have M3 move chits, but the Amazon has one effort star on her chit, while the Captain has two, so they normally suffer some fatigue when performing that action. And neither the Pilgrim nor the Wizard have the ability to make a medium move with a speed of 3, so these boots are a real boon to them.

Even the Black Knight, if he trades his heavy armor for a medium breastplate and helmet, can take advantage of these boots.

The Quick Boots are also the only set of boots that provide fame if possessed. These boots of of no use to the heavy characters, other than the fame and notoriety they provide, or the gold that can be collected from their sale.


The Power Boots provide a heavy move with a speed of 4. They are of benefit to all characters (the light and medium characters for the additional carrying capacity, the heavy characters for the relatively fast move time that avoids fatigue).

The medium and heavy characters will appreciate wearing these boots, since a H4 move chit is normally accompanied by two effort stars.

The Dwarf, in particular, benefits from wearing the Power Boots, as he has no H4 move chit, and must usually rely on his duck move, which is sufficient for battling the monsters and natives, but is a fatal weakness when facing off against other characters.


Our last set of boots is the Seven League Boots. In addition to providing a tremendous move with a speed of 5, the Seven League Boots also allow the character to record an extra move every game day.

Those extra moves add up. Normally, each character has 4 actions per day. An additional move per day provides up to a 25% increase in the number of actions the character can perform.

The Seven League Boots can be worn by any character, and like any magic item that provides extra actions, should be equipped immediately.

While the speed of 5 may be slow, for a light and medium character, that is a reasonably fast move speed for a heavy character, and, again, avoids those heavy characters having to suffer fatigue.

Module B4: The Lost City

I was never a huge fan of Jim Holloway, but I do love the artwork from module B4, The Lost City.

The Lost City provides both story-based adventures and a sand-box setting. It includes foreshadowing, humour, opportunities for pitting competing factions within The Lost City, kooky NPCs, a Big Bad End Guy, tricks and traps, and hooks for additional adventures.

B4, The Lost City, along with B1, In Search Of The Unknown, and B2, Keep On The Borderlands, are excellent examples of good adventure design.

The More I Post At WOTC, The Stoopider I Get

I can objectively demonstrate that posting on the WOTC D&D fora actually reduces your intelligence.

To wit:

Einstein and Hawking are two of the smartest guys that ever lived.

They never posted on the WOTC D&D fora.

Therefore, we assign them a score of 0, for no posts.

The more a person posts on the WOTC forums, the less time they have to become an Einstein or Hawking. Therefore, the WOTC poster's potential for genius is inversely proportional to their number of posts.

Thus, we take the inverse of the WOTC poster's posts to represent their potential for genius.

Since Einstein and Hawking have 0 posts on the WOTC fora, we take the inverse of their posts, which is 1/0, so they receive an infinity score on the genius potential scale.

For me, i'm up to post 37, which means i'm already down to 1/37 on the genius potential scale, or 0.027.

I'm getting stoopider by the minute.

Microquests: Death Test 2

Every 1970's game design house was strongly affected by the success of TSR's Dungeons and Dragons game.

If you look at the history of such established chit-and-hex firms as SPI and Avalon Hill, you see mad scrambles to catch up to the phenomenal growth curve of TSR, and capture some of the role-playing game market.

Then there were upstarts, like Metagaming, that came onto the scene just as TSR was finding its legs. But, despite being contemporaries, and settling (initially) into discrete niches, you still find them trying to horn in on the success of D&D.

Like SPI and Avalon Hill, Metagaming desperately wanted to penetrate the roleplaying game market. Their unique business model was microgames; small format chit-and-hex games that could be carried anywhere, and played anytime.

But after Metagaming's success with the Steve Jackson-designed Melee microgame, and subsequent further success of the spellcaster-based follow-up, Wizard, Metagaming poured significant energy into expanding those two games, creating what they hoped would be a full-fledged RPG competitor to D&D. That expansion led to the creation of "The Fantasy Trip", being Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard and In The Labyrinth.

With the departure of Steve Jackson from Metagaming, TFT would subsequently become GURPS.

One of the Metagaming Melee and Wizard supporting lines was a series of Microquest boxed supplements. These were small format boxed adventures, that provided everything you needed to run a pre-programmed game, in either solo or game-mastered mode. Those microquests were not terribly sophisticated, as they were typical hack-and-slash fare.


But they included the most wonderful cardboard counters!

The above counters are from Death Test 2, a maze and set of arenas below Thorz' palace, intended to test the character's mettle, in anticipation of eventual employment in Thorz' mercenary army. As I observed earlier, the combination of skeletons, weapon-wielding octopuses, and other assorted denizens, was welcome inspiration for our middle-school imaginations.

Orgies Inc.

Others have provided their own observations and critiques of this article, appearing in Dragon Magazine #10, October 1977.

I, likewise, applaud the proposed DnD variant for experience point acquisition.

My purpose in posting this old Dragon article is two-fold: to once again highlight the delicious whimsy of old school Dungeons and Dragons art (the above orgy scene is by the incomparable David Trampier), and demonstrate the inclusiveness and tolerance apportioned to different gameplay approaches during the early years of the hobby.

The idea of rules variants is a big-tent approach to Dungeons and Dragons. The big-tent approach was thrown under the bus as DnD transitioned from game to property (and this happened a lot earlier than some of us would like to admit) and the DnD community was impoverished by it.


Here's the first page from the Dragon article on alternative experience point acquisition. For those of you who are not already familiar with its contents ... enjoy.

The Importance Of Using Protection

And you thought combat in Original Dungeons and Dragons was deadly.

In Avalon Hill's Magic Realm, death comes quickly, and often.

Without armor, most Magic Realm characters are killed by a single well-aimed blow inflicted by any one of several monsters and natives. And that, regardless of how long you have been adventuring nor how proficient you have become.

That's why many Magic Realm characters begin their adventuring days with one, or several pieces of armor. And those that don't begin with armor either rely heavily on being fleet-of-foot and running away from danger, or spend the first couple of days chasing down some protection.

There are two kinds of armor in Magic Realm. The mundane armor, represented by grey counters, is included in your character's starting equipment, or can be purchased from the natives that prowl the valleys and woods of the Realm.

Mundane armor includes helmets, shields and breastplates, all of which are medium weight, are damaged if they absorb a medium blow, and are destroyed with a heavy or greater blow. It also includes suits of armor, which are heavy weight, damaged by heavy blows, and destroyed by tremendous ones. Any of those armor items are flipped over to their "damaged" side when their absorb their first blow. They are destroyed, if damaged a second time.

However, they can absorb lesser blows indefinitely. So a heavy suit of armor can absorb any number of medium blows and be no worse for wear. And the medium helmets, shields and breastplates can absorb no end of light blows without a scratch.

In addition to the grey, mundane armor counters, Magic Realm includes yellow armor treasure counters and armor treasure cards.

While there are several mundane helmets, shields, breastplates and suits of armor available to the players, there is but one of each of the yellow magic armor counters.

The gold helmet, jade shield and silver breastplate are worn by the mouldy skeleton, a special treasure site in the Magic Realm, and are heavy weight and are damaged by heavy (rather than medium) blows.

The suit of tremendous armor is found in the Crypt of the Knight, another special treasure site. The suit of tremendous armor is of little worth and cannot be carried by any but the strongest Magic Realm characters, like the White Knight, Berserker or Dwarf, as characters need to have tremendous strength to wear it. For those who can don this armor, it makes them a walking tank.

In addition to those armor treasure counters, there are three special armor treasure cards.

The first is the golden armband. Only light weight, but providing medium armor protection, this is a handy treasure for the light characters, who must otherwise forgo armor as they adventure in the Magic Realm. The golden armband is worth an additional 3 fame if sold to the Lancers.

The second treasure is the bejeweled dwarf vest. Worth an additional 10 fame if sold to the Soldiers (perhaps because the game designer failed to include dwarven natives to interact with?) the dwarf vest is but medium weight while providing heavy protection to the wearer. The bejeweled dwarf vest is also a great treasure, and so should be kept if the player has selected great treasures as one of her victory conditions.

The final armor treasure card is the golden crown. One third of the imperial regalia (the other items being the royal sceptre and the imperial tabard) the golden crown provides somewhat inadequate protection, being heavy weight and providing only medium armor. Its sale value of 50 gold, plus 20 fame if sold to the guard, and its status as a great treasure would tend to discourage players from using this as armor, unless absolutely necessary.

Tastes Like Chicken

Cold chicken, that is. This is a still photo from a recent article about The Hobbit Movie. You can find the reference at TheOneRing.net.